Conference host
Name: Danny Shaw

Most of my career has been spent researching, analysing and reporting on crime, policing and the criminal justice system.

For 31 years I was a journalist at the BBC, working for a wide range of radio programmes, including Today, the World At One, PM and File on 4, on Radio 4. I also appeared regularly on BBC TV, on Breakfast News, the News Channel and the One O’Clock News, and wrote extensively for the BBC website.

In 1998, I began specialising in home affairs, covering major crimes and court cases, such as the murder of Jill Dando, the trial of Kenneth Noye and the inquest into the death of Mark Duggan. I reported on the 7/7 bombings, Operation Yewtree and the 2017 terror attacks - and charted the ups and downs of ten Home Secretaries and six Metropolitan Police Commissioners. I've visited over 20 prisons and conducted thousands of interviews with police officers, offenders and victims of crime.

During my time at the BBC I won the Bar Council Legal Reporting Award four times and was part of a team which received the 2019 British Journalism Award for a project about murders in the UK. In 2020, I was short-listed for the Criminal Justice Alliance 'Outstanding Journalism' award.

I taught home affairs to journalism students at City University for 13 years, and have taken part in numerous criminal justice, legal and policing conferences.

In 2020, I began working for Crest Advisory, which specialises in research, communications and strategy in the criminal justice sector. I now combine my role there as a Senior Associate with a range of other work - providing media training and communications advice; chairing and speaking at conferences; and commentating and writing for the BBC, LBC, Times Radio, Talk TV, GB News, The Times, Daily Telegraph, The Spectator, New Statesman, Policing TV and Policing Insight.

Keynote Speaker
Name: Mr Jamie Bartlett
Job Title: Investigative Journalist
Biography:  Author of the famed work The Dark Net, journalist and an engaging keynote speaker, Jamie Bartlett lights up the hidden corners of the internet to reveal the strange subcultures and protagonists that inhabit it – from Bitcoin miners to neo-Nazis.

Jamie Bartlett is the author of three books: The People Vs Tech (2018) about data and democracies (Winner of the 2019 Transmission Prize), Radicals (2017) about political outsiders and the best-selling The Dark Net (2014) about internet subcultures. He founded the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at the think-tank Demos, where he specialised in online social movements and using machine learning to study the impact of technology on society. He is a regular commentator on national and international media outlets, and a regular writer on technology for The Spectator. He is also a technology blogger for the Telegraph and regularly contributes to publications on how the internet is changing politics and society, including the New York Times, The Times, the Guardian, Foreign Policy, and Prospect.

Name: Professor Paul Taylor
Job Title: Police Chief Scientific Adviser
Organisation: National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC)
Biography:  Professor Paul Taylor became the first Police Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) on 1 May 2021, with a remit to connect science and technology expertise both in the UK and globally to keep policing at the forefront of best practice. The role of the Police CSA will help guide critical strategies, policies and decisions, helping police to protect millions of people.                                               

Paul is Professor of Psychology at Lancaster University, Professor of Human Interaction at the University of Twente, and founding director of the UK Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST). Established in 2015, CREST has brought together over 140 researchers from 35 universities and SMEs to deliver research that informs policy and practice in security and policing.

Name: Dr Samantha Lawrence
Job Title: Head of Home Office Science and Technology Commissioning Hub
Organisation: Home Office
Biography: Samantha Lawrence is the Head of the Home Office Science and Technology (S&T) Commissioning Hub. Her team enables the Home Office family to exploit S&T to solve current and future challenges. She works to provide a centralised function to identify and coordinate S&T needs across the Home Office, Law Enforcement, Fire and Rescue Services and wider stakeholders, to build and task a prioritised portfolio of requirements, overseeing delivery.  Samantha has worked in science related roles for over 20 years including roles within Industry and Academia, before moving to Civil Service. She has held roles in the Department of Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), The Centre for Applied Science and Technology (CAST), The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), Joint Security and Resilience Centre (JSaRC) and Home Office Science.

Name: Dr Andrew Stafford
Job Title: Head of Society, Governance and Security Research
Organisation: Economic Social and Research Council (ESRC)
Biography: Andrew is Head of Society, Governance and Security Research at the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), where he leads on research development and commissioning activity for crime, justice, security and governance. Prior to this Andrew was Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Gloucestershire, specialising in policing and crime reduction

Name: Deputy Chief Constable Ben Snuggs
Job Title: Deputy Chief Constable
Organisation: Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary
Biography: Ben is currently Deputy Chief Constable (DCC) in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Constabulary and is transferring to Thames Valley Police as DCC in April 2023. Ben chairs the national Forensic Information Database Services (FINDS) Strategy Board on behalf of the National Police Chief’s Council. He is also the national lead for Hostage and Crisis Negotiation. He is a Strategic Firearms Commander, Counter Terrorism (CT) Commander and member of the national cadre of chief officers who assume overall tactical command for resolving CT incidents. Ben is the force lead for Cyber Crime, Digital Investigation and Intelligence. Ben has worked as a Crime and Operations Superintendent and Divisional Crime Manager, managing reactive, pro-active criminal investigations, public protection and sex offender management. In 2009 he served in Afghanistan as a European Union Police Mission civilian police advisor to Minister of the Interior.

Name: Mr Miles Hunt
Job Title: Deputy Division Head & Project Helios Change Leader - Counter-Terrorism and Security Division
Organisation: Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL)
Biography: Miles Hunt joined the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory in 1988 with a discipline in Mathematics and Statistics. Throughout his career Miles has undertaken a wide variety of roles across the organisation with a majority of that supporting defence operational challenges, development of future battle winning technology and programme leadership. Miles has undertaken secondment roles within Defence and more recently, the Home Office and so understands the challenges of technology maturation and adoption. Currently Miles leads senior engagements across defence, other government departments and policing. Miles is driven to make a difference, with a deep rooted understanding of Defence and Security, he is committed to the exploitation of science and technology to enhance capabilities for service men and women, both now and in the future.

Name: Mr Ben H
Job Title: Organisation: National Security Technology and Innovation Exchange(NSTIx)
Biography: Ben has worked in the government security community since the early 2000’s, where he has held a number of positions in Operations, Intelligence, Strategy and HQ functions. Ben’s is driven to ensuring cross government working and collaboration with multiple stakeholders to ensure that the UKs national security missions are untaken in the most effective way possible. In science and technology, key to this is the National Security Technology and Innovation exchange (NSTIx) which is there to connect and cohere the national security community ensuring we innovate, collaborate and co create. NSTIx also leads the Co Creation Network which bring together expertise and specialist facilities from across government partners, the private sector and leading academic communities to exploit opportunities at the cutting edge of advances in key thematic areas.

Name: Ms Stacey Rothwell
Job Title: Network Director – Eastern Region Innovation Network
Organisation: Kent Police
Biography: Stacey Roth well, the Director of the Eastern Region Innovation Network (ERIN) which consists of the seven eastern region forces, has 24 years-experience as both an officer and civilian staff member. Stacey project managed the implementation of the Evidence Based Investigation Tool (EBIT) which assesses solvability of crime. Stacey has since completed her Masters’ studies at Cambridge in Police management and applied criminology and has been elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Experimental Criminology. For the past two years she has worked on two randomised control trials within Kent, trialling first telephone and latterly rapid video response (RVR) to non-domestic and domestic abuse calls for service. The RVR trial was funded by the Science Technology Analysis and Research fund. Since that time ERIN has supported the Eastern region with replication and implementation of RVR with the support of the Office of the Chief Scientific Advisor.

Name: Mr Stan Gilmour
Job Title:  Director – Thames Valley Violence Reduction Unit
Organisation: Thames Valley Police
Biography: Stan Gilmour is the Director of the Thames Valley Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) and the Data Strategy and Insight lead for the national VRU Network. Stan’s role is to provide systems leadership and strategic coordination of efforts to reduce serious violence with a focus on the development of multiagency partnerships, improving evidence and evaluation, and promoting sophisticated methods for data sharing and utilisation both regionally and nationally.

Name: Dr Carolyn Lovell
Job Title: Research and Development Lead – Forensic Capability Network
Organisation: NPCC
Biography: Carolyn Lovell is the NPCC Research and Development Lead for the Forensic Capability Network. Joining the FCN in January 2020, having previously worked for Hampshire Constabulary - Forensic Investigations. Carolyn has worked within policing for over 28 years and leads several national forensic research groups and supports the Forensic Regulators Medical Specialist Group, and a number of NPCC portfolios. Carolyn is also a teaching fellow at the University of Portsmouth and has recently completed her PhD in Criminal Justice, specifically focussed on the investigation of sexual offences and the barriers for change. Carolyn is soon to join Professor Paul Taylors team and support the delivery of the Science and Technology Strategy for policing.

Name: Audrey Campbell
Job Title: Director of Strategic Services and Improvement
Organisation: Bedfordshire Police
Biography: After working in the private sector for 20+ years within the voice and data industry I joined Bedfordshire Police in 2009. I have worked in Project, Programme and Change Management across all areas of the Force since joining and now head up a fantastic team who are responsible for Change, Improvement, Innovation, Intelligence and Performance Analytics, Strategy, Futures, Demand, People and Workforce, Audit, Review and Inspections. I am passionate about innovation that enables our people to spend more time with the public and our community.

Name: Ms Theresa Jennings (TJ)
Job Title: Senior Principal Analyst, Emerging Concepts and Technology Group – Counter Terrorism and Security Division
Organisation: Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL)
Biography: Theresa Jennings (also known as ‘TJ’) started her career working as a business analyst for the financial sector before joining the Serious Crime Analysis Section (SCAS) where she worked for many years as a Behavioural Analyst supporting investigations into stranger serial sexual offences. In 2017, TJ joined the Office of Security and Counter Terrorism (OSCT) and developed many of the national intelligence and futures elements of the Serious & Organised Crime Strategy. Realising the importance of looking to the future TJ moved to the Government Office for Science (GO-Science) where she led on the development of futures resources for partners across Government. TJ joined the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) in 2020 and currently works on both defence and policing futures and systems thinking based initiatives.

Name: Mr Paul Botley
Job Title: Police Integration Hub Lead, Emerging Concepts and Technology Group – Counter Terrorism and Security Division
Organisation: Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL)
Biography: Paul Botley began his career as an electronic engineer at the Home Office Centre for Applied Science and Technology (CAST) in 1998 , carrying out hands -on development of technical equipment for operational deployment within policing. He is currently leading the recently formed Police Integration Hub which seeks to identify capabilities being developed by defence and policing which may have potential for exploitation against challenges across those domains. Outside his role on the hub he is also delivering technical work in the futures area, establishing the potential threats and opportunities from novel concepts as seen from a long term perspective.

Name: Dr Hugo Rosemont
Job Title: Visiting Senior Research Fellow – Department of War Studies
Organisation: Kings College London
Biography: Dr Hugo Rosemont serves as Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Defence Studies at King's College, London. Outside King's, he has held the position of Public Policy Manager - Defence and National Security at Amazon Web Services (AWS) since August 2020. He sits on the Council of the UK Security and Resilience Industry Suppliers' Community (RISC) and is a member of the Police Science Council formed under the auspices of the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC).

Name: Ms Nerys Thomas
Job Title: Research, Analysis and Knowledge Sharing Lead
Organisation: College of Policing
Biography: Nerys Thomas is a Research, Analysis and Knowledge Sharing Lead at the College of Policing, helping the service to identify, share and use evidence about what works. She also has responsibility for the College’s work on performance improvement and prevention. Nerys has been working in policing and criminal justice research for over 20 years and prior to joining the College, held various roles in the Home Office, the Office for Criminal Justice Reform and the National Policing Improvement Agency. She has carried out and published research on a wide range of issues including police demand, vehicle crime, police investigations, use of forensics and intelligence. She has also been seconded to a government-led criminal justice reform project focusing on the Human Rights Act.

Name: Ms Emily Jackson
Job Title: STAR Programme Manager
Organisation: NPCC
Biography: Emily joined the PCSAs team in January as Programme Manager for the Police STAR Fund. She has significant experience running and supporting innovation programmes and technology research across government. Prior to joining the OPCSA, she worked on the £150m pa Aerospace Technology Institute R&D programme in the then Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), and ran the Department for Transport's Technology, Research and Innovation Grants (TRIG) programme. She also has experience in developing and supporting research and innovation strategies for a number of government departments and agencies including the Ministry of Defence and the Met Office. She holds a Masters degree in Biology (Ecology and Conservation).