SFP Annual Review 2023/24
By Martyn Hordern,
This is my fifth annual review in my tenure as the Partnership Coordinator. It has been another year of change and also progression and as always whilst there is always plenty to be done there is much to be proud about.
Any partnership requires continual attention and as I write this I have become aware that the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) and their partnership with Lancashire Police is coming to an end. They were seen as a model to follow especially with their co-location arrangement.
Over the course of the year the partnership has lost some key personnel whose contribution to the continued development of the relationship was clear for all to see. Above all, the end of 2023 saw one of the architects of the partnership, John Beckwith, moving on to a role with the Forensic Collision Investigation Network. The summer saw Helen Poole moving to Birmingham University and at the same time a long-time contributor to the partnership, Rachel Bolton-King moved to Nottingham Trent. Fortunately for all concerned Rachel remains as a Visiting Professor to the partnership and also a Visiting Fellow at Staffordshire University.
We were delighted that Sarah Fieldhouse, a work stream lead on the partnership joined Rachel as a Visiting Professor working alongside her which is seen as a real bonus.
The autumn semester at the University saw a lot of staff changes and the overhauling of Schools that saw the School of Justice, Security and Sustainability combining to become the School of Health, Education, Policing and Science. At the same time another long-term contributor to the partnership, John Wheeler left the university. As the year ended we welcomed Linda Harty as the senior strategic lead on the programme board representing the University.
By comparison Staffordshire Police was quite stable and other than John’s departure personnel remained the same as did the departmental structure of Police Forensics.
Moving back to April of 2023 the year started with a focus on the review of the partnership and a decision to engage Sarah Page from Staffordshire University as a consultant to carry out a formal review on the partnership’s behalf. The main part of her work was a World Café Event in June – more of which later.
MSCi Placements, Visiting Professor and Volunteers in Forensics.
The early part of the year saw two MSCi students concluding projects of real worth – one around how the force managed the forensic investigation of cannabis factories and the other around the visual recording of crime scenes.
The cannabis factory project saw input into an updated Operation Leverdrome guidance document as well as assisting in policy decisions, whilst the crime scenes project gathered a large range of data from across the country that not only assisted the force in respect of the projects focus but also assisted in procurement decisions relating to the next generation of digital cameras for Forensic Investigators.
At the end of the crime scene project the partnership purchased a 360 degree consumer camera as a proof of concept to demonstrate its worth to the force. The demonstration was a success and four devices were sourced by the force with the partnership camera now available at the university for students to have access to.
“The use of the X3 is now going to be implemented due to the high praise of senior management and officers. This is a direct result of the impressive work of Esmee during the student project which has now impacted frontline work for FI”. (Craig Ratcliffe Crime Scene Manager Staffordshire Police)
Another early success in the year was the almost immediate impact that the Visiting Professor had. Rachel embedded herself within Forensic Services on a regular basis being available to staff but also better understanding the needs of police forensics and how she could contribute through her role. This included a delivery to Senior Investigating Officers linking in forensic processing and submission of exhibits whilst working alongside Learning and Development from the Police.
Citizens in Policing is the term used for Police Volunteers and an aspiration for the partnership has been to enable students from the University to volunteer within Forensics to not only contribute to some very busy and critical teams but to get some work experience and hopefully to see Staffordshire Police as an employer of choice. Three roles had been identified – one each in Digital Forensics, Forensic Investigations and Forensic Services and were approved by the force and the programme board in the early spring. It has taken quite some time to bring this to fruition and it is a real achievement and plus for the organisation to bring some of the brightest students into Staffordshire Police.
The autumn of 2023 saw the first two commencing their roles and as I write this piece Forensic Services are in the process of taking on two students to work within their team. The acceptance of the students and for their contribution to be valued shows how worthwhile the exercise has been.
May saw the latest 6 weeks placements start although disappointingly there were only three students who applied and only two whom completed the placement. That said the validation work done by them within DFU and Quality Standards was of a high standard as remarked on by John Beckwith at the presentations in July which as a first included the MSCi students’ presentations.
Work Experience, Part Funded PHD Discussions and Supporting Police Leavers
Work experience is invaluable but the sensitive nature of police forensics and policing in general makes it almost impossible to provide work experience for year 10 students despite a regular round of emails and messages from students looking to get a week with forensics. In an effort to do more than advise students that we don’t provide such access the coordinator has been working with the Police’s Apprenticeship Manager. The SFP website has been updated to reflect the current position and as a proof of concept an information animation based on the work of Forensic Investigations is nearing completion. It is hoped that this along with additional guidance will better support the forensics staff of the future in their career choices.
Partnerships cannot always be about success and the SFP is no different. It is in my view always worth trying something even if you don’t succeed. An example of this was the serious discussions around a part funded PHD student working with the force and the Department of Computing. Whilst there was an appetite from both parties the longevity of the placement when set against public sector finances meant that the police felt unable to commit funding outside of the first year.
The role of the coordinator is multi-faceted and takes advantage of the fact that I have worked for Staffordshire Police since the early 1980’s and have a lot of experience to bring to the role. My work with the Evidence Based Practise and Innovations Board continues but an example of ‘extracurricular’ activity is some work done to better support police leavers.
Unlike the armed forces where resettlement is an important part of leaving the services, support for officers and staff leaving the organisation is less structured and especially so when the departure is due to illness or injury.
As a result of an external forum set up for officers and staff in the force I drew together the experiences of those who had left the organisation and would have welcomed more support around finances, writing CV’s, job searching and support agencies among others.
The Chief Constable was very supportive when approached by myself and work done in the force saw the development of a support process for the first time, initially for officers and with police staff to follow in due course. It’s nothing to do with forensics but is further evidence of the reach a role like mine can have and I am quite proud of playing a part in getting this process into place.
June saw the World Café event and brought together friends and colleagues from across both organisations and elsewhere to celebrate the work of the partnership but more importantly to look to the future and how the partnership can continue to develop.
With Sarah Page’s facilitation there were lots of suggestions and renewed energy for the partnership going forward. Sarah’s report made a series of recommendations and was formally presented to the programme board in the autumn.
The summer saw further activity with the EBPI board looking at innovation as a result of some direction from the Home Office and also looking at how to operationalise the work of the board and the research it sees. As a result of this work I was part of the effort to reconstitute the Eureka force suggestion scheme over the following months which will give staff a clear route into the EBPI board when making a suggestion that would assist the force in terms of efficiency or an innovative working process.
KEV SOMU App
Whilst some projects haver an instant impact some take time and the KEV SOMU(Keeping Evidence Valid SOMU) project is such an example.
This is about supporting staff who manage sex offenders in the community and is principally aimed at giving them help and guidance around navigation of digital devices.
In 2022 we had a student produce a working prototype and last summer working with Adam Newberry at the University we held a small focus group to ensure that SOMU (now known as MOSOVO – Management of Sexual or Violent Offenders Team) staff’s needs we still being met. Additionally, a survey was carried out with a very good response rate which broadly identified the same issues as were identified when carried out some years ago.
Police IT supplied three redundant mobile devices and the app was loaded onto them to allow the staff to field test it and the feedback their views and suggestions on the usability and future capability of the app which was very positive.
Two volunteer computing students have now joined to work on the latest iteration and we are hopefully we can get the app to the next stage.
Marketing Student Placement
The summer of 2023 saw a departure from our normal type of placement when we welcomed an international Digital Marketing and Media student to the partnership with a brief to improve the look of the website and to create more engaging and frequent content to increase the reach of the partnership on social media.
Staffordshire Police Communications were really helpful especially Charlotte Slaney, who arranged for the student to spend time with police comms to better understand what ‘police speak’ is and how to match that tone to the partnerships content.
Over the course of three months there were a series of interviews, some video’ d and some audio in a podcast format. The impact of the student’s work was demonstrated with LinkedIn followers doubling and currently sat over 660 and Twitter / X seeing a slight increase. The website was tidied up and streamlined and there has been a steady stream of visitors helped by its improved ranking in search engines.
A second student starts in April 2024 looking to build upon the progress made last year.
Rob Shaw Award for 2022
2023 also saw the awarding of the second Rob Shaw placement student award which went to Sara Emmesjoe who worked within DFU on retrieval of messages from instant messaging apps. Her work underpins and informs staff when dealing with cases where these apps have been used. Following her graduation Sara joined Greater Manchester Police as a Detective Constable.
Drugs Projects
2023 saw some great work between the police and the university on two drugs projects. One is around testing small samples of destruction drugs to ascertain their composition, in effect a ‘DNA’ test to try and see if seizures can be linked together. Another is around Monkey Dust seizures – this is a drug peculiar to the local area.
The coordinator organised an end to end process to document the movement of the drugs from the police to the University and back where needed and worked with the Custody and Property Office Manager to ensure they were satisfied with what was suggested.
Both projects are progressing well and as far as the Monkey Dust one is concerned the University has secured funding from the Commissioner for Staffordshire to continue with the work.
A concern around Nitazines (synthetic opioids) was addressed by the coordinator with a risk assessment drawn up to assist University staff
Wider Benefits
Another benefit of the coordinating role is the interaction with numerous teams and departments across both partners and having an ability to assist in process changes. One example last year was around a suggestion to improve the return of access / ID cards to police IT when in the partnerships case a student completes their placement.
During the late summer a meeting was facilitated between CISCO and Staffordshire Police around the force becoming a CISCO Academy – the discussion was very positive but at present no decision has been made as to whether the force will go down this route.
The new semester in October saw the first batch of final year projects of interest to the police starting and over the period some 5 or so students were working on such projects.
There were also initial discussions around a Centre of Excellence for Cyber Security and Digital Forensics suggested by Elhadj Benkhelifa from the Department of Computing. This however was overtaken by a challenge to the board from chair Becky Riggs to look at a more widespread collaboration against the back drop of increased costs and increased demand with reduced capacity and reducing budgets. These discussions are in their early stage with some disruption following the departure of John Wheeler and also Tom Chisolm, head of Serious Crime in Staffordshire Police.
The reach and impact of the partnership was further evidenced when The Investigator organisation through the police enquired at the possibility of holding a law enforcement event within the county and through the partnership this will become a reality later on this year being held in the Catalyst building at the University.
Serious Crime Review Assisted
At the end of the year the coordinator received an unusual request from within Staffordshire Police. There was an ongoing review of a historic serious case by the force and some of the images from the crime scene were on 35mm slides.
The force didn’t have the capability to digitise them and an external company’s quote was too high. Working with Police Information Security and staff at the University a slide scanner was loaned to the police and around 120 images were digitised by the coordinator.
Virtual Reality or Immersion?
The use of immersive technologies continues to be of interest to the partnership and especially to Forensic Investigations as they face the challenge of Complex Crime Accreditation where it is seen as a possible mechanism to test competency.
A visit to West Midlands Far and Rescue Service at the end of the year saw a demonstration of the RiVR virtual reality equipment which is embedded into their annual competency assessment of Fire Investigators which was fascinating to see. The newly opened immersive suite at the Leek Road Campus will we hope be a consideration for future collaboration in this area. An additional piece of work with a PHD student of Sarah Fieldhouse’s is looking at the value of Virtual Reality as a means of training Forensic Investigators and April 2024 will see a week-long large-scale demonstration and assessment of this method at the university supported by Forensic Investigators from the force. A selection of pictures from the Ashley 2 Immersive Suite follows.
To further support the Complex Crime accreditation a STAR (Science Technology Analysis and Research) fund bid was submitted in the autumn to further develop immersive processes in this area of accreditation. Despite a decent bid it was unsuccessful in a very strong field of entrants that saw the fund oversubscribed several times over.
Journeys Event, Good Sam App and 6 Weeks Placements
A central tenet of the partnership is around employability and showcasing Staffordshire Police as an employer of choice. To do this, along with Dean Northfield from the University, the coordinator has organised a series of employability events entitled ‘Journeys into’ where former students attend and talk of their journeys into University and on into forensics
The latest event was in January which saw another good attendance and some great stories highlighting that hard work and commitment does pay off in the end. We are sure that these events better equip students to navigate into the world of work and especially policing where the application process doesn’t mirror the private sector.
The new year also saw the first combined meeting of the various work stream leads since the World Café event and saw some of the recommendations of Sarah Pages report implemented.
A decision was taken to combine those who are part of the partnership into a single representative’s group (name if one is needed still to be decided) as it ensures a better number of attendees but also recognises that sections of forensics aren’t a silo and each flows into the other or are complementary.
It was also decided to look at having a student representative on the meetings to enable better communications with the study body. Lastly, to ensure better communications and the making of new working relationships between staff at the University and the Police a Teams ‘team’ would be created hosted by the university with minutes of meetings, discussion pieces and a biography of individual members. Some initial testing has shown that the police staff can access it from Police IT.
Another decision was to look at resuming student visits to Police Headquarters forensics to give students an overview of what the work entails whilst balancing demand within the police. Work is starting to scope out how this could look including a half day visit on a single day for two groups of students once a year.
For the first time since before 2020 no students applied for a Police MSCi placement – this was due to a mixture of reduced opportunity within the police and less students on the 2024 cohort.
One of the continuing benefits of the partnership is access to great space be it for training, meetings and individual work. All three have been facilitated through the year culminating in February with a two-day course held at the University for the force’s EDIU (Enhanced Digital Investigation Unit)
The Good Sam app continues to pop up on the radar after the 2021 MSCi research project – it’s now used by around 33 forces with Staffordshire in the minority and ongoing dialogue with the Commissioner’s Office reveals that it is still under consideration. There are across the force benefits from its use.
The year ended with a criminology student joining the partnership for a 40 hour placement assisting the coordinator to draw up some Terms of Reference for the Evidence Based Practise and Innovation Programme Board sub groups including a draft for the SFP as well as doing some research around evidence based practise and the barriers to it being implemented at an operational level.
Last year’s 6 weeks placements were disappointing in terms of the lack of interest from students. This year as a result of a joint effort by the coordinator and Sarah Fieldhouse a total 14 potential projects were suggested from a longer list with 8 coming from University colleagues. At the time of writing 8 students had expressed an interest in doing a project.
Despite all the changes I feel this year has again been one with lots to reflect on in a positive manner. As always, I remain grateful to Claire Millar and David Flatman-Fairs for their ongoing support over the year and also to Rachel Bolton-King, Sarah Fieldhouse and those members of the partnership whose contribution makes it what it is.
Martyn Hordern
SFP Coordinator.