What is the Ethics Panel?
Following a detailed stakeholder engagement, the Ethics Panel has been set up by the Police & Crime Commissioner (PCC) and West Midlands Police (WMP). The Panel’s job will be to advise the PCC and Chief Constable on data science projects being proposed by WMP’s Data Analytics Lab.
The Lab is led by specially recruited data scientists and will develop programmes of work that use data more intelligently to help WMP prevent crime, allocate resources more efficiently and help it to do its job of keeping the public safe.
The Ethics Panel has been set up to help ensure that ethics and people’s rights are put at the heart of the Lab’s work. Using the Panel’s expertise, WMP will be in a better position to help people avoid crime and support the communities of the West Midlands.
How was the Ethics Panel recruited?
Following a formal application, shortlisting and interview process which involved shortlisting and interview panels with both male and female representation and expertise from West Midlands Police’s Diversity & Inclusion Team, we are delighted to have appointed people with a very diverse range of relevant skills and experiences.
All appointments having been made strictly on merit. The majority come from, live and/or work in the West Midlands, and there is a 50/50 split between men and women.
We used a specialist BAME recruitment agency to share our advert for the Ethics Panel vacancies across their networks, including different ethnic minority, single parents, disability, religious, sexual orientation and gender groups.
This was supplemented with adverts in national publications and the sharing of the advert at universities across the West Midlands, through the members of the PCC’s Strategic Policing & Crime Board and across the PCC’s social media.
Contact
For further information on the Ethics Panel please contact our office on: wmpcc@west-midlands.pnn.police.uk
Panel Members
The Ethics Panel Board includes Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer (Jonathan Jardine) and 14 Panel Members.
The board members are Anindya Banerjee, Malcolm Fowler, Jamie Grace, Marion Oswald (Chair), Claire Paterson-Young, Tom Sorell and Derek Dempsey.
The biographies of those appointed can be found below.
Marion Oswald
Panel Chair
Professor Marion Oswald, MBE is Professor of Law at Northumbria University, Newcastle… Read more about Marion Oswald
Marion Oswald
Panel Chair
Professor Marion Oswald, MBE is Professor of Law at Northumbria University, Newcastle. She researches the interaction between law and digital technology and has a particular interest in the use of AI and innovative technology in policing and national security. She is Principal Investigator of the UKRI-funded 4-year Responsible AI UK Keystone Project ‘PROBabLE Futures – Probabilistic AI Systems in Law Enforcement Futures.’ She is the founding chair of the West Midlands PCC and West Midlands Police Data Ethics Committee and a member of the Biometrics and Forensics Ethics Group, an advisory non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Home Office. Marion was awarded an MBE in The Queen’s Jubilee Birthday Honours list 2022 for services to digital innovation.
Professor Anindya Banerjee
Panel Member
Professor Anindya Banerjee joined the Department of Economics in January 2008 as Prof… Read more about Professor Anindya Banerjee
Professor Anindya Banerjee
Panel Member
Professor Anindya Banerjee joined the Department of Economics in January 2008 as Professor in Economics. Before coming to Birmingham he was Professor at the European University Institute in Florence and Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford. Professor Banerjee received his Ph.D. from the University of Oxford.
His interests lie in time series econometrics, including factor models, and the econometrics of integrated panel data. He has recently been using his expertise in econometric modelling to look at the use of algorithmic methods in augmenting police decision making.
Malcolm Fowler
Panel Member
Seventy three and married with twin daughters and a grandson, Malcolm has had a stake… Read more about Malcolm Fowler
Malcolm Fowler
Panel Member
Seventy three and married with twin daughters and a grandson, Malcolm has had a stake in the West Midlands since moving to Birmingham over fifty years ago. For over forty seven years he was a criminal defence Solicitor practitioner and advocate. With Higher Rights of Audience since June 1995, he has since then undertaken much Crown Court advocacy to include jury trials and other sensitive and serious cases.
Malcolm has held many exacting voluntary posts, notably as President of the Birmingham Law Society, as Chair of the Criminal Law Solicitors’ Association, as Chair also of the national Law Society’s Criminal Law Committee and as a member of the Society’s Council and its Human Rights Committee. Since retiring he has continued with many voluntary activities touching upon close interests and resolute beliefs in criminal justice and penal reform. For about fifty years he has been a regular broadcaster and legal commentator on a host of criminal justice and allied topics.
Jamie Grace
Panel Member
Jamie is currently Senior Lecturer in Law in the Department of Law and Criminology at… Read more about Jamie Grace
Jamie Grace
Panel Member
Jamie is currently Senior Lecturer in Law in the Department of Law and Criminology at Sheffield Hallam University, holding this post since January 2014. He is course leader of both the MA and LL.M in Applied Human Rights courses taught in his Department. He is an active researcher in the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice, and a Fellow of the Sheffield Institute of Policy Studies, both part of Sheffield Hallam University.
He was previously Senior Lecturer in Law in the School of Law & Criminology at the University of Derby (with various roles from June 2007 until January 2014). In terms of his research, Jamie is a privacy law specialist, and chiefly teaches on human rights issues connected with policies in criminal justice, welfare and education.
Claire Paterson-Young
Panel Member
Claire is a Research Leader at the Institute for Social Innovation and Impact (ISII)… Read more about Claire Paterson-Young
Claire Paterson-Young
Panel Member
Claire is a Research Leader at the Institute for Social Innovation and Impact (ISII) at the University of Northampton. She has over 15 years practice and management experience in safeguarding, social care, youth justice, and social justice. Claire is Chair of the University of Northampton’s Research Ethics Committee and former member of the Health and Research Associate Research Ethics Committee.
Claire has experience in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) integrating policy analysis, accessibility design, and advocacy to address systemic barriers and enhance inclusivity for individuals experiencing disadvantage. She has expertise in international and interdisciplinary research, with projects on Gender Based Violence and Inequality in Indonesia and Vietnam (British Council), Arts for Peacebuilding (AHRC and GCRF), and Responsible AI in Law Enforcement (RAi-UK).
Claire is a trustee of the National Association for Youth Justice (NAYJ), Associate Editor for the Journal of Child and Family Studies, International Advisory Board member for the YOUNG journal and Editorial Board Member for the Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice and Criminology. She is an Expert Panel Member for the Work and Family Research Network and Chair for the Work and Family Research Network Cross-Comparison Research Group. She has held Visiting Fellowship and Associate Fellowship roles at Binus University (Indonesia) and Children and Young People Centre for Justice (Scotland).
Professor Tom Sorell
Panel Member
Tom Sorell is Professor of Politics and Philosophy at Warwick University. He has long… Read more about Professor Tom Sorell
Professor Tom Sorell
Panel Member
Tom Sorell is Professor of Politics and Philosophy at Warwick University. He has long- standing interests in the ethics of security and policing, as well as the ethics of data analytics. He is also involved in research on machine learning in cancer diagnostics. He is the editor (with Kat Hadjimatheou and John Guelke) of Security Ethics (Routledge). He has led the EU-funded DETECTER FP7 Security project and assisted in leading its successor, SURVEILLE. From 2013-2016 he was ESRC Global Uncertainties Leadership Fellowship in the ethics of counter-terrorism and the fight against organised crime.
He is a member of the Biometrics and Forensic Ethics Group of the Home Office, and the Strategic Hub on Organized Crime at RUSI. He is the author or editor of 20 books and the author or co-author of 150 peer-reviewed articles.
Derek Dempsey
Panel Member
Derek Dempsey is Founder and Director of Empyrric, an independent consultancy focused… Read more about Derek Dempsey
Derek Dempsey
Panel Member
Derek Dempsey is Founder and Director of Empyrric, an independent consultancy focused on the use of AI within Financial Crime and Compliance as well its broader impact across society.
Empyrric works with businesses to support their use of data, analytics and AI, relying on years of experience working with clients around the world, leveraging new analytical and machine learning techniques and business expertise. Empyrric also works with organisations on new technologies to ensure they are used effectively, ethically and to provide benefit to society.
Derek has worked in Artificial intelligence and Advanced Analytics for over 20 years and is a specialist in the development and application of predictive analytics for fraud detection, compliance monitoring and risk solutions. He has worked across multiple industries and lines of business and has a wealth of experience in the development, deployment and effective use of advanced techniques such as neural networks, logistic regression, decision trees, clustering, network analytics, fuzzy logic, outlier techniques and other machine learning methods.
Derek worked for FICO from 2007 to 2019 in several roles including management of the custom fraud analytics team, Principal Consultant in the Advisors Practice, and Director of a Data Science Centre of Excellence. In these roles he delivered a range of successful projects in finance, government, insurance, healthcare, telecommunications, on-line retail and other areas. He was responsible for the development of several new financial crime solutions to add to the FICO portfolio.
Prior to joining FICO Derek lead a number of teams using advanced analytics and AI methods for fraud detection solutions worldwide. Within these roles he was responsible for advanced analytics and AI research, development and delivery. Derek has several patents in the use of neural networks, profiling techniques, solution architectures and other advanced methods.
A Philosophy graduate from the Christ’s College, Cambridge, Derek holds an MSc in Cognitive Science and Intelligent Computing from Westminster University, London. Formerly a lecturer at West London College where he taught philosophy and mathematics for several years, Derek lectured at McMaster University, Canada and subsequently at the London School of Economics (LSE) and University College, London (UCL).
Jonathan Jardine
Panel Member
Jonathan Jardine has been Chief Executive of the West Midlands Office of the Police a… Read more about Jonathan Jardine
Jonathan Jardine
Panel Member
Jonathan Jardine has been Chief Executive of the West Midlands Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner since 2015, having joined West Midlands Police Authority in 2008.
Previously he worked with local government, the military, academia and the health sector. He has undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from the University of Wales, has studied at the University of Illinois, and completed the College of Policing Strategic Command Course in 2020.
He has been Chair of the Association of Policing and Crime Chief Executives since 2022.