Digital Justice & Policing

Kim McAllister is a freelance journalist and event host, as well as a communications consultant for Connect. She has presented seven series of Clever About Cash on BBC Radio Scotland as well as contributing to other radio shows across the network. She writes business features for the Herald and has been published in many major newspaper titles. She spends a lot of her time producing podcasts for clients across the UK and is a trustee of The Yard, a charity for children and young people with disabilities. 

Fiona Cameron recently joined Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service as Chief Product Owner for Future Courts and Tribunals and AI. Fiona previously led Justice Transformation in the Scottish Government, supporting criminal justice organisations to deliver collaborative system-level transformation. This included the Digital Evidence Sharing Capability (DESC) a ground-breaking £33m programme which is overhauling the way that evidence is managed and shared through the criminal justice system. Fiona began her justice career as a public prosecutor, serving 19 years with Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. 

Dr Liz Aston is the Director of the Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR) and an Associate Professor of Criminology at Edinburgh Napier University. In 2020 she was appointed by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice to establish and Chair the Independent Advisory Group on Emerging Technologies in Policing. She is the co-editor of Palgrave’s Critical Policing Studies Series, a member of the International Advisory Board for the N8 Policing Research Partnership and sits on various Police Scotland advisory/reference groups.  

Liz has a strong record of collaborative research on policing both in Scotland and in Europe, and is experienced in knowledge exchange and building strong research-practitioner relationships. Her research expertise centres on local policing, including the intersect between technology and policing. In 2021 Liz was awarded an ESRC Open Call Grant as PI for a three-year project, INTERACT (Investigating New Types of Engagement, Response and Contact Technologies in Policing) and she is a Co-I on the EPSRC funded 3PO project ‘Protecting Public Facing Professionals Online’ project. Prior to her SIPR role she was Head of Social Sciences at Edinburgh Napier University.   

Laura Paton has a background in human rights law with a particular focus on the rights of those involved in the criminal justice system and the rights of children and young people. Laura was appointed HM Chief Inspector of Prosecution in Scotland in 2019. Her role is to independently assess the operation of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. Recent inspections have covered the investigation and prosecution of sexual crime, the handling of criminal allegations against the police, and the use and impact of emergency criminal justice provisions introduced in response to Covid-19.

Before being appointed HM Chief Inspector of Prosecution, Laura was a Lead Inspector with HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland where she inspected the state, efficiency and effectiveness of policing from 2013 to 2019. Laura led inspections of a wide range of policing activity including local policing, custody, crime recording, call handling, firearms licensing and railway policing. Previously, Laura worked with HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) in England and Wales providing policy and human rights advice on the independent inspection of prisons and other forms of custody. This included developing a framework for the inspection of military detention facilities in Afghanistan. From 2009 to 2013, Laura was also the first coordinator of the UK’s National Preventive Mechanism (NPM), a group of organisations tasked under international law with monitoring all places of detention. Laura regularly advised governments and NPMs around the world on the human rights-based inspection of detention. Prior to joining HMIP, she worked for the Commissioner for Children and Young People in Scotland, where she coordinated the first shadow report submitted by the four UK Children’s Commissioners to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, and developed a model for children’s rights impact assessments. Laura has also worked in the voluntary sector for Children 1st and for the Children’s Legal Centre, where she was editor of a journal of law and policy affecting children and their families.

Laura currently serves as a trustee and vice chair of Together, the Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights. She has a First Class Honours Degree in Scots Law from the University of Glasgow and a LLM in Human Rights Law from Glasgow Graduate School of Law.

Ally has been a Police Officer for over 29 years, during this time covering a variety of front line and covert policing roles.  Predominantly an intelligence background, Ally has worked in Counter Terrorism, been seconded to the Metropolitan Police and during his service has undertaken responsibilities in several high profile events including the London Olympics, Glasgow Commonwealth Games, COP26 and most recently the death of HRH the Queen.

Ally’s current position is within the National Intelligence Bureau at the Scottish Crime Campus, Gartcosh.

Chief Superintendent Matt Richards has management responsibility for Police Scotland’s Digitally Enabled Policing Programme, a key component of the ten-year strategy for policing ‘Serving a Changing Scotland’.
Between 2017 and 2019 he was Divisional Commander for Specialist Services, giving him national responsibility for Armed Policing, Specialist Operations, dog and mounted branches, Air Support Unit, Dive and Marine Unit, Mountain Rescue, the National Hostage and Crisis Negotiator Unit and Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) teams. Matt has substantial experience commanding major events including the Hogmanay Street Party, the Edinburgh Festival, Royal residences and the visit of the President of the United States. He has also been frequently deployed as a Public Order Commander and Strategic Firearms Commander across the country. While in charge of Specialist Services he led on the extension of Taser, the RPAS (drones) Programme and changes to the Armed Policing Deployment Model.
In 2016 he was Operations Superintendent for C3 Division (force control rooms) as they were re-modelled from 6 sites to 3, having previously been the Partnership and then Operations Superintendent in Edinburgh before, during and after the inception of Police Scotland.
Chief Superintendent Richards joined the legacy Lothian & Borders Police in 1994 and was initially based in the Wester Hailes area. He has held various uniformed and detective roles up to superintendent across the service.

In 2021 he was Strategic Public Order Commander during the successful  delivery of the Conference of Parties (COP26) which was held in Glasgow.

Colin started his career in the military, serving seven years in the Intelligence Corps – completing two operation tours of Afghanistan as well as other deployments across the world. Following this, he worked as an intelligence contractor in Iraq for a year and then as an Intelligence Manager in a prison for two years, before moving to the world of open source with COSAIN. Colin has been part of the Capita team for five years, providing 24/7 support to its users. This support is not just technical in nature, but using his engrained background in analysis, he is able to support users with live incident monitoring and reducing threat, risk and harm. 

Trust and Transformation in Digital Government: Delivering secure and user-centric online services

Keith has extensive experience in senior business and digital executive leadership roles held in government and public sector organisations and in transforming and improving profile public facing services. Keith is responsible for COPFS’ corporate and business service functions, which includes digital and information services. Current digital transformation priorities include maximising the use of data and digital technology to transform the delivery of citizen services and to improve the way the organisation works. Keith completed an MBA (with Project Management) in 2015.

Nigel is Head of Digital Services at Scottish Prison Service and has held past roles as Head of Health and Justice; Governor, HMP Glenochil & Deputy Director Prisons.

Nigel’s objectives include the implementing digital transformation across the SPS to upskill frontline staff and include those in custody to embrace digital inclusion. Developing a new case management platform to support the custodial journey & Digital Ethics in Justice.

Interests outside of work include Cycling, Karate (2nd Dan Black Belt Shotokan), Rugby & Japanese Cooking.

The Scottish Biometrics Commissioner is Dr Brian Plastow, who was appointed by Her Majesty the Queen on 12 April 2021 on the nomination of the Scottish Parliament. He is a former police Chief Superintendent and Lead Inspector with Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland. Brian has more than 4 decades of policing experience in Scotland and has significant knowledge of, and practical experience in, the use of biometric data and technologies for criminal justice and policing purposes.

Ian joined the Metropolitan Police in 1989 where he served in West and South London for the first 15 years of his service in frontline operational roles. The second half of his career was spent in West Yorkshire Police, specialising in neighbourhood policing, partnerships, public order and firearms command roles. The last four years of his service was spent leading the delivery of mobile policing. Ian now works for Motorola Solutions as a senior consultant in public safety software solutions with a particular focus on situational awareness and mobility.

John is digital and innovation lead at Capita across Justice and Policing. In this role he researches and develops service and solution propositions to solve sector challenges, improve citizen experience across public services and enable the digital justice agenda. John’s background is in the design and delivery of technology enabled solutions and services for public and private sector enterprise clients. He has been a champion of workflow automation and technology driven citizen experience for more than a decade. John is also a member of Tech UK’s Justice and Emergency Services Management Committee.

Fraser Sampson is an Honorary Professor and member of the Advisory Board at the Centre for Excellence in Terrorism, Resilience, Intelligence & Organised Crime Research at Sheffield Hallam University where he obtained a PhD in digital accountability in law enforcement and has worked on a number of international research projects involving technology within policing, including the development of principles for the accountable use of AI.  Having over 40 years’ experience working in the criminal justice sector, he served as a police officer in the West Yorkshire Police and British Transport Police before becoming a solicitor specialising in policing law, conduct and governance.  He has written and edited a number of leading police law texts including the Blackstone’s Police Manuals published by Oxford University Press.  As national chair of the Association of Police and Crime Chief Executives, he proposed and subsequently drafted the statutory oath of office for police and crime commissioners and was appointed CEO & Solicitor to the Police and Crime Commissioner for West Yorkshire in 2012 where he was instrumental in establishing the National Police Air Service, later being seconded as CEO to the Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner in North Yorkshire.  He is a graduate of the Top Management Programme at the Civil Service College, a Senior Fellow of the Weinstein International Foundation for dispute resolution in the United States and a CEDR qualified mediator. 

Prof. Nancy Loucks OBE is the Chief Executive of Families Outside, a Scottish voluntary organisation that works on behalf of families affected by imprisonment. Prior to this she worked as an Independent Criminologist, receiving her MPhil and PhD from the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge, and in 2012 was appointed as Visiting Professor at the University of Strathclyde’s Centre for Law, Crime and Justice. Nancy was awarded an OBE in the 2016 New Year’s Honours List for services to Education and Human Rights.

She co-chaired the Justice & Care Workstream for the Independent Care Review and the Independent Review of the Response to Deaths in Prison in Scotland; chairs the Board of the International Coalition for Children of Incarcerated Parents (INCCIP); and is a member of the Global Prisoners’ Families Research Group at the Centre for Criminology, Faculty of Law, University of Oxford.

Irakli Beridze is the Head of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at UNICRI, United Nations​. More than 20 years of experience in leading multilateral negotiations, developing stakeholder engagement programmes with governments, UN agencies, international organisations, private industry and corporations, think tanks, civil society, foundations, academia, and other partners on an international level. Mr Beridze is advising governments and international organizations on numerous issues related to international security, scientific and technological developments, emerging technologies, innovation and disruptive potential of new technologies, particularly on the issue on crime prevention, criminal justice and security. He is supporting governments worldwide on the strategies, action plans, roadmaps and policy papers on AI. Since 2014, Initiated and managed one of the first United Nations Programmes on AI. Initiating and organizing number of high-level events at the United Nations General Assembly, and other international organizations. Finding synergies with traditional threats and risks as well as identifying solutions that AI can contribute to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. He is a member of various international task forces, including the World Economic​ Forum’s Global Artificial Intelligence Council, the UN High-level panel for digital cooperation, the High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence of the European Commission.  He is frequently lecturing and speaking on the subjects related to technological development, exponential technologies, artificial intelligence and robotics and international security. He has numerous publications in international journals and magazines and frequently quoted in media on the issues related to AI. Irakli Beridze is an International Gender Champion supporting the IGC Panel Parity Pledge. He is also recipient of recognition on the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the OPCW in 2013.​ 

Kate Wallace joined Victim Support Scotland as Chief Executive Officer in 2017.

Kate has thirteen years’ experience of high-profile leadership roles in the public and voluntary sectors in both executive and non-executive roles. Prior to VSS, Kate lead Visualise Scotland, a service delivery charity that provides services to people living with disabilities and complex needs from across Scotland. She has previously held the position of UK Programme Director for Barnardo’s and was based between London and Glasgow.

William Webster is Professor of Public Policy and Management at the Stirling Management School, University of Stirling. He is a Director of CRISP (the Centre for Research into Information Surveillance and Privacy), a research centre dedicated to understanding the social impacts and consequences of technologically mediated surveillance. Professor Webster has research expertise in the policy processes, regulation and governance of surveillance cameras, privacy and ethics, as well as public policy relating to data protection and eGovernment. He is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Information Polity, co-chair of the Scottish Privacy Forum and the EGPA (European Group of Public Administration) Permanent Study Group on eGovernment.  

Martin Taylor is Deputy CEO of cloud communications technology leader Content Guru. Since co-founding the company, whose storm^® cloud platform supports hundreds of the world’s largest governmental and private sector organisations, Martin has remained at the forefront of innovation in communications and customer experience technology. He heads Content Guru’s public sector and healthcare practice, which operates the omni-channel communications that underpin household-name services such as DWP Universal Credit, NHS111 and Test & Trace.

Martin is a regular guest lecturer at his alma mater, King’s College London, where he specialises in strategy and entrepreneurship.

Dave works with Capita as a Digital Transformation Consultant specialising in the Justice and Policing sector. He has extensive experience of operational policing, organisational remodelling and digital transformation.

Prior to joining Capita Dave served for 29 years in a wide range policing roles concluding his policing career as the operational lead for Police Scotland’s Digitally Enabled Policing Team with responsibility for designing and delivering their new national information management platform (COS).

During his career he led the introduction of the Airwave Communications System into Tayside Police and its deployment in support of the 2005 G8 Conference. He undertook a leadership role in the strategic redesign of Police Scotland’s Contact, Command and Control (C3) capabilities, including the development of an associated business case for the modernisation of Police Scotland Control Room/ Service Centre technologies.

Declan is a tireless advocate of promoting STEM skills to the younger generation and is an active mentor and coach to the next generation of cyber security professionals in Scotland. While we have been working with Declan since Jan 2018 at the Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland, he has designed, curated, delivered, hosted and organised a huge number of cyber education, cyber exercising, and cyber security related events.

One of Declan’s most celebrated strengths is that whether working with internal or external group of people, he looks to find the best outcome for all involved and truly exemplifies the core values of our organisation, where we strongly believe in having the people at the heart of it all.

Declan has and continues to take an active role in the success of all of the Ethical Hacking students from Abertay University working with the Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland. As Head of Ethical Hacking & Professional Services, his role involves shortlisting, interviewing, hiring and subsequently supervising, mentoring and coaching Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland’s Ethical Hackers for all Cyber Education and Cyber Exercising activities and projects.

With over 30 years of Engineering & IT industry experience, Ian Holmes works in partnership with public safety organisations to assist them in understanding the benefits of Hexagon’s capabilities for incident management and situational awareness and the positive transformational potential of these digital technologies to address the increasingly diverse and complex challenges their organisations face. Collaborating to enable them to navigate the adoption and implementation of these critical digital technologies and deliver a more sophisticated response to evolving demands both now and in the future. 

Barry is a Technical Solutions Architect for Cisco focusing in the area of Collaboration & Hybrid Work.  His role focuses on assisting  customers drive value from their technology investments in their digital transformation programs.  He specializes in building vertical solutions and tailoring technology to meet the needs and demands across all government verticals including Justice & Healthcare.