He received his doctorate from the distance-learning Union for Experimenting Colleges and Universities of Cincinnati, Ohio in 1988, in a self-designed major of police psychology.
In two court cases, Lisa Fournier, editor of the American Journal of Psychology, has testified that Lewinski's work lacked basic elements of legitimate research, drew conclusions unsupported by data, and was pseudoscience.
[5] Lewinski published three studies between 1999 and 2002 showing that test subjects could raise and fire a previously hidden gun faster than a police officer could react, termed "action/reaction".
[1] Christy Lopez, Obama Justice Department attorney and Georgetown University law professor, said "the Bill Lewinski show" was part of an insidious trend in police training that used pseudoscience to justify excessive force.
[2] Dan Handelman of Portland Copwatch dubs the "shoot first" philosophy as the "Superman theory", describing how "many suspects are shot in the back because they turn before the officer's bullet hits them".
"[1] Lewinski has also promoted the term "excited delirium", captured in a discussion while officer Derek Chauvin was choking George Floyd.