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What is the Ethics Committee?

Following a detailed stakeholder engagement, the Ethics Committee has been set up by the Police & Crime Commissioner (PCC) and West Midlands Police (WMP). The Committee’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 Committee 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 Committee’ 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 Committee 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 committee 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.

Key contact

The policy and operations lead for ethics is Tom McNeil.

For further information on the Ethics Committee please contact our office on: [email protected]

Committee Members

The Ethics Committee Board includes the Assistant Police and Crime Commissioner (Tom McNeil), Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer (Jonathan Jardine) and 14 Committee Members.

The board members are Anindya Banerjee, Malcolm Fowler, Peter Fussey, Jamie Grace, Janine Green, Jennifer Housego, Marion Oswald (Chair), Claire Paterson-Young, Tom Sorell, Derek Dempsey, Andrew Howes, Nathan Hodson, Simon Rogerson and Sian Thomas.

The biographies of those appointed can be found below. 

Marion Oswald
Committee Chair

Marion is the Vice-Chancellor’s Senior Fellow in Law at the University of Northumbr… Read more about Marion Oswald

Professor Anindya Banerjee
Committee Member

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

Malcolm Fowler
Committee Member

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

Professor Peter Fussey
Committee Member

Pete Fussey is a professor of sociology in the Department of Sociology at the Univers… Read more about Professor Peter Fussey

Jamie Grace
Committee Member

Jamie Grace Committee Member Jamie Grace Jamie is currently Senior Lect… Read more about Jamie Grace

Jennifer Housego
Committee Member

Jennifer joined Essex Police in May 2015, to lead on digital transformation. Prior to… Read more about Jennifer Housego

Claire Paterson-Young
Committee Member

Claire Paterson-Young completed her Doctorate in Criminology, exploring the social im… Read more about Claire Paterson-Young

Professor Tom Sorell
Committee Member

Tom Sorell is Professor of Politics and Philosophy at Warwick University. He has long… Read more about Professor Tom Sorell

Derek Dempsey
Committee Member

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

Tom McNeil
Committee Member

Tom lives in the West Midlands with his family. Following his career as a charity law… Read more about Tom McNeil

Nathan Hodson
Committee Member

Nathan Hodson is a mental health doctor at Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Foundation T… Read more about Nathan Hodson

Professor Simon Rogerson
Committee Member

Simon Rogerson became Europe’s first Professor in Computer Ethics in 1998 and in 20… Read more about Professor Simon Rogerson