Peter I. Collins

Dr. Peter Collins has been the forensic psychiatrist with the Ontario Provincial Police, since 1995. From 1990 to 1995 he was a member of the first profiling unit of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Violent Crime Analysis Section) and was involved in the development of the Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System (ViCLAS). Since 1992 he has been a member of the crisis/hostage negotiation team of the Toronto Police Service Emergency Task Force.

Peter obtained his Masters in Applied Criminology (MCA), from the University of Ottawa, his Medical Degree from McMaster University and completed his postgraduate medical training in psychiatry and forensic psychiatry at the University of Toronto. His clinical appointment is with the Complex Care and Recovery Program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Peter is an Associate Professor, in the Division of Forensic Psychiatry, at the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine.
He is a Certified Threat Assessment Professional (Canada) through the Canadian Association of Threat Assessment Professionals.

Peter is a consulting editor with the Journal of Threat Assessment and Management, published by the American Psychological Association, and a columnist with Blue Line Magazine.

He retired from the Canadian Armed Forces (Reserves), at the rank of Lieutenant-Commander, and served on 2 deployments in Southern Afghanistan. In October 2012 he was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in recognition of his contribution to the Canadian Forces. Peter is an advisor to the newly formed Toronto Police Service outreach program for veterans in crisis.

In 1997 Peter was elected a member of the International Criminal Investigative Analysis Fellowship. In 2015 he received a lifetime achievement award from the World Association of Detectives and a lifetime achievement award from the Canadian Critical Incident Association, in 2017. In 2023 he was appointed to the National Expert Committee on Countering Radicalization to Violence, by the Minister Public Safety, Canada. Peter is an authority on violent crime and has worked with, and instructed, numerous criminal justice agencies in North America, and 26 countries internationally, including the FBI, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Interpol, and Europol.


Media availability: TV, Radio, Print/Online but will not comment on ongoing investigations