Towards a future vision for Digital Forensics

Nick Baker is the Deputy Chief Constable (DCC) for Staffordshire Police. He has 30 years’ service predominantly as a Detective within proactive, reactive and specialist units.

Kirsty has been directly involved in delivering and shaping forensic services in England and Wales since the 1990s. Her career started as a DNA Scientist with the Forensic Science Service where she went on the lead the National DNA Database Service. Since her move to the Home Office, she has played a prominent role in shaping forensic services culminating in her current role where is leads the development of Forensics Capability Network Operational Services within the NPCC Transforming Forensics Programme whilst still running the national policing forensic databases; national DNA Database, national footwear database and acting as Custodian of the policing collections held within the national fingerprint database.

Yvonne Gallagher has over 25 years’ experience in IT, business change, digital services and cyber and information assurance. She has had senior roles in the private sector in large organisations such as the Prudential and Network Rail. Yvonne was CIO in two government departments, as well as Chief Digital Officer and CIO in the private sector prior to her move to the NAO. Yvonne is also a Fellow of the BCS and member of their Organisation and Employer board. Yvonne’s role in the NAO over the past 5 years is to support the NAO’s work for Parliament evaluating how well Digital and associated business change programmes are implemented to deliver value for money.

Managing Director of Leapwise, an Honorary Senior Lecturer at University College London’s Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime Science and a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government. Tom was formerly Director of Research at the Institute for Government, where he led a range of work on government outsourcing and commissioning, a senior crime policy adviser in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, and a consultant specialising in strategy and transformation at the Boston Consulting Group. He has supported significant criminal justice and commissioning/ outsourcing programmes in a wide range of countries, is a regular adviser to government reviews and select committee hearings. His book Criminal: The Truth About Why People Do Bad Things (Penguin, 2016), was a Times ‘Thought’ Book of the Year.

Camilla Graham Wood is a Solicitor with Privacy International and is responsible for our legal research and litigation on data surveillance and data protection. She leads our work at the intersection of technology, data exploitation and the law. This includes the use of new forms of technology by law enforcement including mobile phone extraction and cloud analytics.

Stephen Hawker is a former senior member of the UK intelligence and security community. Since 2006 he has worked as an independent consultant providing insight to government and the commercial sector in the UK and overseas on national security and intelligence issues. He has also served as a member of the Advisory Board of BAE Systems Applied Intelligence. Stephen has undertaken significant assignments at Board level in the public and private sectors including Capability Reviews of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), benchmarking reviews of overseas security and intelligence services and other capacity building and training in Africa and the Middle East. In 2011 he undertook an independent international review of security clearance arrangements for the government of New Zealand. Stephen is a Non-Executive Director of FCO Services, Chairman of Critical-Link Ltd and is an independent member of the FCO Consular Management Board. He was specialist adviser to the House of Lords sub-committee reviewing the EU’s Internal Security Strategy in 2011 and one of the ‘Critical Friends’ advising the Home Office on security arrangements for the 2012 London Olympics. Stephen serves as Senior Associate of Cityforum and offers guidance across a wide range of its activities.

Robert Hayes has a portfolio of Non-Executive Director & Strategic Advisory roles, supporting public & private sector organisations through complex change programmes, with a particular focus on risk & cybersecurity. Robert spend 30 years working in senior positions in the UK Government, followed by ten years as a Senior Fellow of the Microsoft Institute for Advanced Technology in Governments. Robert holds a B.Sc. in Psychology, is a Fellow of the British Computer Society and a Freeman of The City of London. He also holds the rank of Major (V) in the Staff Corps of the British Army.

Toby Jones leads the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism’s transformation of mission-led innovation for public safety and security with digital technology and data. He co-founded ACE, the UK’s Accelerated Capability Environment, a Home Office-sponsored partnership between industry, academia and government, to push smart technologies and skills to the front line of law enforcement with operational tempo. He brings industry experience from the national security and resilience sector, combined with public policy development including legislation for investigatory powers and telecommunications regulation and compliance. His professional background is in systems engineering and computer science.

Michael Lithgow CBE FIET CEng has been with Gartner Consulting for 13 years. Having been Head of Defence and Security, Lead for Public Sector across EMEA, he is now head of Gartner Consulting UK & Ireland. He has been working with Policing internationally for over 11 years with a specific interest in forensics and the adoption by law enforcement of technology that improves policing outcomes and contributes to building trust with policing constituents. Prior to Gartner Michael held a number of senior appointments within Defence both within the UK and on operations.

Matt Parr was appointed as Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary in August 2016. Brought up in London, he now lives in the West Country. He currently has responsibility for forces based in the capital, the national special forces and those in Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories. His background is in the Royal Navy, which he joined straight from Durham University. A submariner by specialisation, he has also commanded above the waves and ashore. Much of his career was spent at sea; but among his shore appointments he was responsible for the Navy’s inspection regime and also led a Ministry of Defence-wide team conducting studies for ministers. As a Rear-Admiral he was a member of the Navy Board. He was head of the Submarine Service and was the Navy’s Director of Operations. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 2013.

David Shaw served as a police officer for 36 years, culminating as Chief Constable of West Mercia Police from 2011-16 having also served at chief officer level in West Midlands Police leading on Counter Terrorism, Crime, Local Policing, Criminal Justice and ICT. He has held national portfolios in Fingerprints, Biometric Databases and Conflict Management. In late 2016 David became interim Programme Director for the Transforming Forensics Programme before joining the Home Office Biometrics Programme as Strategic Stakeholder lead. In September this year he began a new role with responsibility for Stakeholder Engagement within the Innovation team of the Law Enforcement Portfolio of the Home Office. In April 2020, he begins studying for a Master’s in Applied Criminology and Police Management at Cambridge University.

Ben Snuggs is the Assistant Chief Constable with portfolio lead for Crime Investigation, Criminal Justice and Intelligence. He was appointed to role on 2 May 2018, having passed the Senior Police National Assessment Centre in November 2017 and graduated from the Strategic Command Course in March 2018. Ben chairs the national Forensic Information Database Services (FINDS) Strategy Board on behalf of the National Police Chief’s Council. Ben is a Strategic Firearms Commander, Counter Terrorism (CT) Commander and member of the national cadre of chief officers who assume overall tactical command for resolving CT incidents. In Hampshire Constabulary Ben is the force lead for Cyber Crime, Digital Investigation and Intelligence. He is an accredited PIP4 investigator for the strategic management of complex cases, PIP3 Senior Investigating Officer with a background in major crime, serious and organised crime, public protection investigations and as a Hostage Negotiator Co-ordinator and Negotiator. Ben is a graduate of the FBI National Academy (session 246) and has a degree in Law and Criminology (LL.B) and a Master’s Degree in Police Leadership and Management (MSc).

Ian Stevenson leads Cyan Forensics, with 20 years’ experience of putting new technology into the hands of the users who need it. He started Cyan Forensics in 2016 with his co-founder Bruce, a former police forensic analyst, to bring much-needed innovation to the world of digital forensics. His previous experience spans sectors including software, electronics, telecommunications and electronic payment security. He is a Chartered Engineer, a Saltire Fellow, and a Member of the Institute of Directors.

In 1994 Rachel Swann started her policing career with Leicestershire Police serving in a number of roles and ranks across the county’s diverse geographic and demographic landscape. In 2015 Rachel joined Northamptonshire Police as Assistant Chief Constable, becoming Deputy Chief Constable in 2017. In February 2019 Rachel moved to Derbyshire Constabulary as Deputy Chief Constable where she leads an exciting and innovative change programme. Rachel strongly believes that her leadership role is to enable the staff, officers and volunteers working in policing to deliver the best service that they can, helping them do the right thing in often difficult circumstances. She is passionate about fairness, transparency and inclusion; leading the force’s equalities portfolio.

John Tanzer was called to the Bar 1975 and practiced from 1975 to 2001. Latterly he specialised in criminal work, both prosecuting and defending. A very early adopter of computer technology, John was so advanced that he was once threatened by a court official with prosecution for abstracting electricity after plugging a computer into a court socket. He developed various templates for use in trials including a summing up template which came to be widely adopted by the judiciary. John was appointed as a circuit judge in 2001 and sat in South London. From his appointment he was involved in various technology boards. He campaigned for a number of years for an independent IT system for the judiciary and in due course developed eJudiciary which is now used across the judicial system. John was also instrumental in the development and adoption of the Digital Case System which is now used in the criminal courts across England and Wales and promoted the use of video conferencing in courts.

Chris Todd is the head of Professional Standards for West Midlands Police but also the Data Analytics lead for the National Police Chiefs Council. He has led a number of transformation projects for the West Midlands Police including the recent delivery of ‘Data Driven Insights’ which incorporates the first cloud-based architecture for the integration of core intelligence systems in UK policing and the establishment of the first data science lab within mainstream policing in the UK. This then became the catalyst for a 9-force collaboration; the National Data Analytics Solution; which remains under development. Chris commenced his policing career in the Royal Hong Kong Police in 1990 and worked for a number of years nationally in the fight against serious organised crime, laterally with the National Crime Agency, returning to WMP in 2014 where he has served as Borough Commander in Birmingham, Head of Intelligence and now as head of PSD.

Gillian Tully has worked in forensic science for nearly 30 years, specialising in forensic genetics, innovation, validation and enhancement of quality standards. Her work has included provision of expert evidence to courts in the UK and overseas, and collaborative working with forensic practitioners around the world. In November 2014, Gill took up the appointment of Forensic Science Regulator and is responsible for setting quality standards for forensic science in the Criminal Justice System. Gill is a visiting Professor at Northumbria University, an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine, a member of the Science Advisory Board of the Natural History Museum and an Honorary Member of the Society of Legal Scholars.

Martyn Underhill was re-elected for a second term of office as Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner in May 2016. Previously, Martyn was a Detective Chief Inspector with Sussex Police, retiring in 2009 after 30 years’ service. He was commended for his work on the Sarah Payne case. On retirement, Martyn moved to Dorset but continued campaigning for child safeguarding issues, including Sarah’s Law. Martyn leads nationally for PCCs on forensics, Brexit, use of force and custody. He is deputy lead for mental health (leading on suicide prevention) and is Chair of the Independent Custody Visiting Association. Martyn is a qualified Project and Programme Manager.

James Vaughan began his career in Wiltshire, where he started in 1992 working in various uniform and detective roles in the northern part of the county. On promotion he served as a Detective Sergeant and Detective Inspector in Swindon up to 2005, when he was selected to join the High Potential Development Scheme. As a Chief Inspector he undertook the role of staff officer to the Chief Constable and later led the centralisation of roads policing within the Operations Division. Promoted to Detective Superintendent in 2007, James led Wiltshire’s response to major, serious and organised crime and delivered significant capability development, whilst leading and managing numerous murders and other major crime investigations. Upon promotion to Chief Superintendent, James led the development of Citizen Focused Policing, Partnerships and Safer Neighbourhoods across Wiltshire and was later the Head of Criminal Investigation. In 2011, James successfully completed the Strategic Command Course. He joined Dorset Police as Assistant Chief Constable in May 2012. Following promotion to Deputy Chief Constable in 2013, James has led on strategic change, planning, performance, professional standards, people and community focus and media and communication. James has also led various regional collaboration programmes including the forensic service collaboration and the strategic alliance with Devon and Cornwall Police. In his national capacity he is the NPCC Lead for Forensic Procurement and Market Development. In February 2017 James took up a new role as Deputy Chief Constable (Chief Operating Officer) for the Dorset, Devon and Cornwall Strategic Alliance. On April 7th 2018 James took up the role of Chief Constable for Dorset Police. James holds a Masters Degree in Criminology and Police Management and has published research on his academic interests in child homicide. James is married to Sacha and has five children. He enjoys natural history, music, sports and has an aspiration to keep fit!