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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

Professor Anindya Banerjee
Panel Member

Professor Anindya Banerjee joined the Department of Economics in January 2008 as Prof… Read more about Professor Anindya Banerjee

Malcolm Fowler
Panel Member

Seventy three and married with twin daughters and a grandson, Malcolm has had a stake… Read more about Malcolm Fowler

Jamie Grace
Panel Member

Jamie is currently Senior Lecturer in Law in the Department of Law and Criminology at… Read more about Jamie Grace

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

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

Derek Dempsey
Panel Member

Derek Dempsey is Founder and Director of Empyrric, an independent consultancy focused… Read more about Derek Dempsey

Jonathan Jardine
Panel Member

Jonathan Jardine has been Chief Executive of the West Midlands Office of the Police a… Read more about Jonathan Jardine