2022 Digital Forensics Series

Sarra Fotheringham is the Policing Standards Manager for Digital and Cyber at the College of Policing. She has worked in law enforcement for 20 years in different roles across local and national policing. Her portfolio includes digital intelligence and investigation for front line and specialist digital and cyber capabilities helping law enforcement to respond to the current and emerging digital opportunities. Sarra works with DCC Paul Gibson on the implementation of the Digital Forensic Workforce Development strand. She collaborates with national law enforcement stakeholders on several programmes developing and delivering skills, learning and knowledge. Sarra is responsible for supporting national technology programmes to develop Codes of Practice, guidance and learning. In her spare time, she is a Special Constable which gives her great insight into frontline policing, and she is also a Defuser supporting colleagues process the impact of traumatic events.

Paul Gibson is a Deputy Chief Constable with responsibility for the East Midlands Specialist Operations unit, which delivers specialist police services to five forces: including forensics, major crime, serious and organised crime, counter terrorism and legal services. He joined Lincolnshire Police in 1998 after studying for a BSc (Hons) in Genetics at Liverpool University, obtaining a first-class degree. Paul won a scholarship from Zeneca Pharmaceuticals and completed a PhD in Medicine at St James’s Hospital, Leeds. He specialised in the field of investigation, enjoying the role of Senior Investigating Officer for major crime, lead for public protection and then the Director of Intelligence, before assuming the role as Head of Crime in 2015. During this time, Paul trained as an accredited performance coach and has since coached extensively; hugely enjoying contributing to the development of others. Paul spent time as Divisional Commander and Assistant Chief Constable (ACC) in Lincolnshire, before attending the Strategic Command Course in 2018. He moved to Derbyshire Constabulary as ACC later in 2018 and assumed his current role in January 2021. Paul is the National Police Chief’s Council lead for Digital Forensics and the Forensics Marketplace.

Giles Herdale has been involved in intelligence and digital investigation for many years, working at the National Policing Improvement Agency, College of Policing and National Police Chiefs’ Council, where he set up and ran the Digital Investigation and Intelligence Programme (2014-17) to transform policing capabilities to address the growing threat of online crime. He has also had experience in the private sector, providing digital forensics and data analytics services to law enforcement, and cyber and information security services to corporate and not for profit organisations. In recent years he has worked independently including supporting the National Crime Agency with TRACER, a multi-agency and multi-disciplinary team looking at emerging technologies, their impact on investigative capabilities and sponsoring innovation to mitigate threats and exploit opportunities. Giles has a long interest in ethical use of intelligence and data that dates back to his work developing the Management of Police Information Code of Practice following the Bichard Inquiry into the Soham murders. This led to his involvement in setting up the Independent Digital Ethics Panel for Policing in 2014, a panel of experts drawn from a range of disciplines looking at ethical frameworks for using data in investigations. He was co-chair of IDEPP from 2018-20 and has retained a close interest in data ethics in policing, advising NPCC, the College of Policing, NCA and the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation on development of ethical frameworks.

Iain Livingstone leads 23,000 officers and staff serving communities across a third of the United Kingdom’s landmass. He was appointed Chief Constable of the Police Service of Scotland in August 2018, having served as Interim Chief Constable from September 2017 and as a Deputy Chief Constable from December 2012. Having graduated in law from the Universities of Aberdeen and Strathclyde, and following work as a solicitor, Mr Livingstone joined Lothian and Borders Police in 1992, serving in uniform, detective and chief officer roles. He has undertaken attachments to the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary. A Fulbright Scholar, Mr Livingstone graduated with a master's degree from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York.

Sir Craig’s long police career culminated in a six-year tenure as Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, from which he retired in 2018. His police career began in 1984 with Wiltshire Constabulary, from where he moved to Gloucestershire Constabulary as Assistant and subsequently Deputy Chief Constable and then on to Cumbria. As Chief Constable of Cumbria Police, he worked closely with the Civil Nuclear Constabulary and Sellafield Ltd. He joined the Civil Nuclear Police Authority board as an independent member in 2019 and also serves on the board of the British Transport Police. Sir Craig has just joined Cityforum as an Associate and will be advising on policing and national security questions. His civil contingencies and resilience experience will be significant as our work in this area increases.

Alex Macdonald is a Home Office Senior Civil Servant with responsibility for developing and implementing policy relating to the creation and use of intrusive personal information, where there is pronounced need to balance the needs of the state with the rights of individuals. Recent areas of focus have included the extraction of data from victims’ and witnesses’ mobile devices in police investigations; police use of facial recognition; and digital identity. Over the past decade in the Home Office, Alex has had senior roles in border and Olympic security policy and previously the administration of legal aid.

Darryl Preston was elected Police and Crime Commissioner for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough on 6th May 2021 and officially took post on 13th May 2021. Darryl has proudly served as both a front-line police officer and a senior detective for 30 years (10 years in the Met and 20 years in Cambridgeshire). After retiring from the force, he joined the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) as a senior policy official where he developed strategic positions and lobbied Government on topics such as serious violence, forensic science, economic and cybercrime. Darryl is currently the APCC national lead for forensics and biometrics.

Steve Rick joined the Board of Forensic Analytics in June 2020, at the invitation of the founders who wanted an experienced executive with a technology and transformation background to provide leadership and direction to the growing company. An internationally experienced business leader who has led complex business transformation and turnaround projects with companies including Menzies plc, Capita and QinetiQ, in 2021 Steve led a successful Series A funding round to secure investment in Forensic Analytics to support growth including further development of the company’s digital forensics software and international expansion. Steve started his career as an RAF engineer and multi-engine pilot. He has been a part-time lecturer at the London Business School, Ashridge Management College, and the LSE. He was a contributing author to Re-Engineering’s Missing Ingredient: The Human Factor and Making it Happen: Fred Goodwin, RBS and the Men Who Blew Up the British Economy. Most recently he was a crew member in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.

Nina Sunde is a Police Superintendent with more than 20 years of experience from the Norwegian Police. Her main fields of experience are cybercrime investigations at The National Criminal Investigation Service (Kripos) and homicide/violent crimes investigations at The Oslo Police District. She is currently a lecturer at The Norwegian Police University College. She holds a Master’s degree in Information Security and Cybercrime Investigation from The Norwegian University of Science and Technology and is currently a PhD fellow at The University of Oslo. The title of her PhD project is “The Digital Forensic Practitioner’s Role in the Construction of Digital Evidence in a Criminal Investigation”.