Staffordshire Forensic Partnership Annual Review 2021-22

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Welcome to this my sixth report as the Partnership’s coordinator and one that reflects on a year where progress has continued to be made, some good news stories generated as well as some fresh faces, new names and colleagues moving on.

There has been some great work done developing a photography CPD course, plus the exploration of a wide range of CPD opportunities, use of Virtual Reality to support accreditation work and support given to the police’s first open day since 2019.

At the start of the reporting year the university merged into two schools with the forensics department sitting within the School of Health, Education, Policing and Science. The Department of Computing sat within the School of Digital, Technology, Innovation and Business.

Later in the year the University rebranded itself as the University of Staffordshire along with new logos.

Within Staffordshire Police the focus on Quality Investigations was joined by a desire to complete a Journey Back to Outstanding after a period in engage following inspection concerns. Forensics and the partnership have I believe a part to play in both these initiatives.

In terms of people working with the partnership Alex Blackett joined as Head of Department for Science and Peter Hunter joined as Head of Forensics for Staffordshire Police. A number of wider appointments across both organisations saw a new Dean of the school, a new Detective Chief Superintendent for Serious Crime as well as later in the year changes at Force Executive level. On a more day to day level Sam Danton a long-time colleague left her role in March 2025 joining the Forensic Collision Investigation Network.

Benhur Bakhtiari Bastaki from the Computing Department joined as a Visiting Professor to the partnership with a view of creating stronger links in the particular area.

2024 Placements and Project Developments

For the first in some five years, 2024 saw no student undertaking an MSCi placement with the partnership with a small cohort all doing them within the University. 2025 saw just one student doing the course but the partnership was chosen as their placement doing a footwear project with Forensic Services.

The summer six weeks projects saw a more joined up approach between the police and the university in terms of the suggesting of projects which saw four students completing placements with DFU, the Digital Media Unit, Forensic Enhancement Laboratory and the Fingerprint team. The students had great support from James Hart, Andrew Hawkins and Gary Nicholls within forensics along with additional support from Dean Northfield and Sarah Fieldhouse at the University.

We saw four very good presentations at Police HQ in July to back up some solid research all of which has benefited police forensics in some way shape or form.

A feature of these latest placements was that two of them were suggested and directly supported by academic staff from the University.

Two other placements that were conducted during the year were a Criminology student who concluded looking at structures within the partnership and the forces Evidence Based Policing Board and how evidence-based practise informs policing.

The other was a marketing and media student who looked to build upon the previous years’ work around publicising the partnership.

In addition to these six students the partnership also supported to a greater or lesser degree five final year students in completion of their dissertations.

Two are worthy of mention. One was around packaging policies of forces across the UK and seeking to identify best practise. Little did we know that the topic of packaging would an issue within forensics later in the year and will be used to support a further 6 weeks placement this year.

Another was a major success story for the partnership. This was around the testing of single deal destruction drugs samples that hadn’t been subject to any laboratory testing. The purpose was to try and identify batches of drugs from their chemical composition. Another strand was around testing of ‘monkey dust’ samples which was used to support a report to the Home Office around the drugs reclassification. Both initiatives were the work of Jodie Dunnett. The partnership was central in devising a safe and audited process to get the drugs to the University and already the work is expanding into other forces.

A 2025 project is looking at the feasibility of creating a drug testing kit for monkey dust as at present it can only be identified via laboratory testing.

Kev Somu is an app devised by the partnership to provide support for the now called Mosovo team within the police who manage sex offenders. The app has seen a step change in its development over the last twelve months or so thanks to the dedication of a volunteer developer Ayo Oduola.  A working proof of concept has been achieved and support is being gathered to further develop the app to support front line officers as well as Mosovo staff in an ever increasing digitally complicated world.

The app has been demonstrated to the programme board and the Evidence Based Police Board and meetings are planned to showcase the concept.

Good Sam is a piece of software that links a smart phones camera and GPS locating capability to support a variety of policing activities. In 2021 the partnership identified it as a potential project that was carried out in 2022. Following this and through the EBP board awareness of its uses in policing were highlighted including to the Commissioner’s Office. Through in no small part the student’s project, the police in 2024 adopted the software to support Domestic Abuse victims and its wider benefits are being explored including a forensic angle.

The partnerships role in where the police are today cannot in my mind be overstated.

Virtual Reality and CPD opportunities. Over the last few months a lot of effort has been put into developing a proof of concept around the use of VR to support the accreditation of serious and complex crime through evidence of decision making. A small team from the university and Forensic Investigations has worked on creating a single suspicious death scenario.

Jon Furmedge from the University aided by a placement student and a developer funded by the partnership has created what is acknowledged as a very useful resource. This was presented early in the new year to the programme board and drew favourable comments. Work is now ongoing to look at what’s next in terms of scalability, development of further scenario’s and costings as well as potential sources of funding. Craig Ratcliffe from Forensic Investigations alongside Matthew Bailey and others have provided great support throughout.

The partnership and Forensic Investigations have also supported a PHD student (and Forensic Investigator from Devon and Cornwall) in her research looking at how VR can support training of staff.

CPD is another area that the partnership can work together on and this last year saw great strides in developing a Photography CPD course at the University through close working relationships albeit with a department outside of the Forensics Department. However, there will be benefits for the students in terms of knowing what the latest practises in recording crime scenes are.

This course, the first of its type in terms of a University delivering the training overall will save money and time as well as being environmentally friendly as travelling is considerably reduced. Prior to the course Becky Nunes at the University assisted greatly in benchmarking the next generation of digital cameras to be used by Forensic Investigators.

This has spawned as series of discussions around other potentially offerings in a variety of disciplines with the most developed being around court room presentation skills for forensics staff. It is hoped this will be an area that benefits both organisations if what the future could look like is realised.

October 2024 saw Police Learning and Organisational Development delivering some mentoring training to interested forensics staff to better support students working with the police on placements.

The Investigator Event July saw myself playing a central role in facilitating an event at the University organised by Chris Hood from Staffordshire Police aimed at providing CPD within digital investigations. Well over 100 professionals in the field attended the event opened by Mike Phillips, Dean of the school (HEPS). Where possible students sat in on some of the presentations and showcased their work around the Catalyst. Student focused presentations were also put on. The event on the day went smoothly and shows how the two organisations can come together for their mutual benefit and which reflected well on both.

Forensics Promotion Days. The spring of 2024 saw the coordinator being asked to organise a series of promotion days for Staffordshire Police Forensics department. The aim was to showcase the work of the department, offer officers and staff advice and guidance as well as put faces to names. The timing was apt as it coincided with the Forces Journey back to Outstanding roadshows that took place across the force during the early summer. This allowed the promotion events to be sited at a location where there would be a good footfall as officers attended the Journey events.

Three Promotion days were held, at Burton, HQ and Hanley Fire Station all in July. The Forensics department’s new internal website was launched at the same time so that too was highlighted to those we spoke to. David Flatman-Fairs and Adam Newberry both attended events to highlight the Partnership.

Overall the events went well and were well received and it was also nice to see the various Forensic teams mixing something which due to the very nature of their individual roles doesn’t happen on a frequent basis.

Volunteers. 2023 saw our first forensic volunteers taking up their roles. This last year saw our first Forensic Services volunteer commencing their role and our second DFU volunteer appointed. We are currently in the process of recruiting for a volunteer in each of the three areas currently with volunteers.

Last year there were almost 200 hours of volunteering across the three roles this despite only one being fully occupied during that time.

Rob Shaw Award 2023

The award was made at the programme board in October and was presented to Kiel Angeles who did a 6-week placement with DFU assisting in a validation project around Mac Books.

Kiel sought out the placement and following graduation works for CCL in the field of digital forensics. His placement provided the groundwork for a wider DFU project and literally saved tens of hours for police staff whilst gaining valuable work experience and exposure to the field.

Kiel was commended by the staff for the outstanding results he achieved, for his hard work, professionalism and dedication to the project.

An academic review of Kiel’s work was equal in its praise identifying a good level of academic strength, high level of learning and applying that to a real-world setting. Kiel was seen as a shining example of what can be achieved by a student and he was a student who put a significant amount of effort in to everything he has done.

A poignant note was that Rob Shaw taught Kiel in the months before his death.

Force Open Day and Open Day for Students. September last year saw the first Force Open Day since 2019. A wet day didn’t dampen spirits and the day was judged a success.

The Forensics stands were a real team effort. Students, staff from the University as well as police officers and staff all came together to put on a great advert for forensics.

Fingerprint keyrings and a great VR offering all went down well (especially as it got everyone out of the rain) In addition Forensic Investigations and DFU put on great displays and

Forensic Collision Investigation showcased their work with a mock crash scene.

As I write this the force has announced that there will be a 2025 Open Day and its scheduled for 14th June at the County Showground.

Another Open Day we held was in November when around 30 students and staff from the University attended force Headquarters. A virtual tour of Forensics was played to students followed by presentations from across the department informing them of the work done. After each one there was a question and answer session and Forensic Collision Investigation Unit subsequently attended the university to talk to the Forensic Crime Society about their work.

Potential project opportunities in the summer and the forthcoming volunteering roles were mentioned as well. Feedback after the day was overall very positive.

The virtual tour of forensics video was a really great piece of work by Police Communications staff. Over two days they captured lots of still and moving images and recorded pieces to camera from staff about the work of the department. Plans are in hand for a wider dissemination internally across the police.

Visit to Staffs Police by Australian Forensic Police Officer

December 2024 saw the coordinator approached to facilitate a visit by an Australian Police Office. Beccy Bennett emigrated when she was a little child and as part of a long term leave policy in Queensland she was visiting the UK for the first time since then.

Queensland employ police officers as their forensic specialists and Beccy works in a very rural community where a day’s travel to a crime scene isn’t unusual.

After a tour of HQ forensics Beccy gave a talk supported by pictures of her work and life in Australia. Her stay in the area was facilitated by the International Police Association and the local chair Bob Lee as well as being a retired police officer worked in Forensics before his retirement as police staff taking exhibits to the forensic science labs.

Supporting Student Employability has been a feature of the partnership over the years and our Journeys events have become a feature working alongside Dean Northfield and Adam Newberry. The early part of the new year saw the latest event with a slight twist in that rather than individual presentations we had panel discussions compered by a former journalist. Some 60 odd students attended and were treated to insightful comment by among others three former placement students of the partnership including Craig Ratcliffe who of course is now a central figure within it.

Feedback was generally very positive and the resulting video’s have been used for student recruitment across the university.

2025 Placements. Again, this year Sarah Fieldhouse and myself looked at raising ideas from across the partnership and we have this time 8 students on placement projects. Two of our volunteers are doing placements as well which makes use of their vetted status. All told we will have three students in Forensic Investigations, one in Forensic Services, one in DFU two doing drugs projects based primarily at the University supported by Jodie Dunnett and another former placement student Mia Abbot now a lecturer at the university. Lastly a computing student is supporting work around designing a training tool / process to support police officers investigating crimes with a digital element. Another development is that some of the projects not selected this year have gone forward as opportunities for final year projects for work in the autumn.

Making New Connections. Other recent work includes linking in with a PHD student involved in a Churchill Fellowship looking at the identification of unidentified remains. This work is of interest to the Forces Crime Review Team who have responsibility in this area.

Work is also ongoing on a more formal collaboration with an academic at the University with the same team to assist in the same area. The same academic has also been put in touch with the forces Heritage Crime lead.

Meetings across the Partnership. Meetings across the partnership are held at regular intervals. The Programme Board met on three occasions across the year. A slightly different recording system was implemented using a RAID (Risks, Actions, Issues and Decisions) process. The police continued to chair and host the meetings of the Board with the chair delegated to the Head of Forensics.

At a more operational level the ‘Representatives’ met on two occasions in June and December and in the summer a Management meeting was started by the myself and which requires restarting after a bit of a hiatus. It was out of this latter meeting that the idea to appoint a VP from computing originated.

Visiting Professors Report by Sarah Fieldhouse.

This year, we welcomed Dr Benhur Bakhtiari Bastaki to the team as a Visiting Professor.  Ben is based in the computing department at the University of Staffordshire and has been recruited to support some of the more digitally focused projects, such as app creation, access to university facilities, and connecting members of the police with academic members of staff to pursue mutually beneficial work.  Ben also has expertise in AI and big data analysis, which Sarah and Rachel felt could support a variety of projects, such as the effectiveness of forensic processes and their impact upon casework.

This year, staff from forensic investigations were introduced to Jon Furmedge, a senior technical lead in immersive technology.  The purpose of this was to discuss the potential for of creating a VR immersive crime scene environment that could be trialled for competency assessments of forensic investigators in major and complex crime.  The team were successful in recruiting a graduate intern to work on this project and money from the SFP was used to employ a graduate (Sam Wesley) to support Jon in the creation of the software.  A prototype has been created, and trials are planned with police investigators.

This software has been used for various university initiatives, as follows:

  • Offer holder days (using the VR programme from the Institute of Policing at this stage).  Prospective students are informed about the partnership and the exclusive opportunities available to them as students at the University of Staffordshire.  They have the opportunity to trial the system and Jon has successfully led interactive sessions during these events.
  • Students were invited to use the system and feedback in sessions led by Craig Radcliffe and Dean Northfield.  Positive feedback has been received and there are discussions about including it as part of the forensics curriculum, which would offer our students a USP.

This year, level 5 and level 6 forensic students had the opportunity to come to HQ for an open day to learn about the forensics department and to discuss placement opportunities.  Martyn facilitated the event which was positively received.  This initiative, as well opportunities within core teaching sessions is being used to increase student awareness of the SFP, and to encourage them to get involved in placements, projects, and internships.  Six-week projects that were not filled this year have been offered as final year projects for the 2025-26 academic year, so we are hopeful to fill these spaces and to continue to enable collaborative work.

Discussions about impact are ongoing.  There are so many projects that take place, but the impact that they have for both institutions has been highlighted as key to demonstrate the benefit and to gain support from senior management long term.  Martyn has collated much information about the projects that have taken place and has a good awareness of how they are benefiting the police, but VPs would like to speak with staff from both institutions to see how the work has been used.  We feel that there could be benefits to publicising this work through our media teams, to perhaps show the public how the SFP is striving to improve service delivery, and to our students in terms of employability and experience.  An application for a graduate intern was made to employ staff to undertake a formal review, but unfortunately, we were not successful.

Rachel and I would like to take this opportunity to formally recognise and thank Martyn for his incredible support.  His organisational skills and ability to ‘make things happen’ are crucial to our role, and we are very grateful. 

Concluding Comments

Across the partnership there is some great pieces of work being done often on top of the day job and as coordinator I continue to be grateful to those staff from both organisations who get involved and make things happen.

With a few moves and departures, the next few months will I feel require some consideration around providing opportunities for others to get involved as representatives to continue the momentum that we have built up this year.

Lastly as always, a big thankyou to David Flatman-Fairs and Claire Millar over the last 12 months. More recently whilst a change in my line managership has seen me coming under Peter Hunter its fair to say David and Claire continue to be sources of support at all times.

Martyn Hordern

May 2025.