Professional and Ethical Standards Panel
The Professional and Ethical Standards Panel is an independent forum that monitors and encourages constructive challenge over the way complaints and integrity and ethics issues are handled by Thames Valley Police and overseen by the Police and Crime Commissioner.
The minutes of the meetings, together with separate summary report, are presented to the Police and Crime Commissioner at the Performance and Accountability meetings. The PCC and Chief Constable have agreed that members of the Joint Independent Audit Committee (JIAC) may also attend panel meetings to to get assurance that the Panel’s overview arrangements are working as intended, and are adequate and effective.
Members
The Panel is made up of independent volunteers.
Mark Harris
Mark is an entrepreneurial business manager with experience of setting up, running and selling his own business. He is a successful manager in the public sector building on private sector experience. He has a proven track record of business turnaround and growth in both public and private sector. He has excellent sales, management, organisational, communication and presentation skills. He has an ability to plan and implement strategic and operational change and consistently exceeds key performance indicators.
He has considerable voluntary experience with Thames Valley Police, including Chair of the Strategic Independent Advisory Group (IAG), was Chairman of the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead IAG and was a member of the Stop & Search IAG.
Verity Murricane
Verity has a keen interest in mental health matters, and is currently a governor for the West Berkshire constituency for Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, and a trustee of Eight bells for Mental Health. She is also a member of the SSE Power Networks Plc stakeholder advisory panel, and runs a small food business.
Michael O’Connell
Michael served thirty years as a police officer with various UK Police Agencies, with wide international expertise, diplomacy and cultural awareness including as a former Director of the international law enforcement agency INTERPOL based in Lyon, France. He is the recipient of many international awards for his service to policing.
Now as the founder of Critical Insights Consultancy, he is working across the globe with clients delivering insight, guidance and leadership for their business transformation in the digital age. Having also recently worked in a senior position in industry with NEC Corporation, he developed enhanced technology led innovation using AI, data analytics and biometrics to help fusion public / private sectors to address government and public safety concerns. He is a specialist in ethics, threat / risk mitigation, big data, business intelligence and analysis, threat identification, crisis response and disaster recovery, with wide ranging experience in tackling global / national security, organised crime and terror threats.
Michael holds advisory and board positions with the Biometrics Institute (UK), Crime Stoppers International (Australia), UNICRI / INTERPOL (Italy) and the Innovation Institute for Fan Experience (IIFX) (USA). He is married with children and resides within the Thames Valley area.
Umar Butt
Umar is a Senior Executive in Digital Transformation, Having spent 18 years with Vodafone and more recently at BT, he has worked across many disciplines including Property Strategy, Sales, Marketing, R&D and more recently Technology with extensive experience delivering large scale Business & IT global transformational programmes. He holds a Bachelor Honours degree in Industrial Management and a Master’s in Business & IT from Aston Business School.
He is an active member of the local community and has over 12 years of organising fund raising community events for charitable causes locally and globally. His volunteering experience expands to being a Governor at St Bartholomew School in Newbury, a member of the Independent Advisory Group (IAG) for West Berkshire Police, Trustee and Executive member of West Berkshire Muslim Centre, Co-founder of ‘Raise for Life’ a community based fundraising group and Founder and Chair of the Vodafone Muslim Society. Umar is married with children and resides in the West Berkshire area.
Steve Buckeridge
Steve and his wife have lived in East Berkshire for over 20 years, have 4 children and are active members of a local church.
Steve has a degree in Economics from Cardiff Business School and the Nebosh diploma in Occupation safety & health. He spent 15 years in a variety of aviation related roles, particularly in safety management including supervising many investigations and reporting on risk management at a senior level.
He is currently Head of chaplaincy at Heathrow Airport leading a diverse team that provide pastoral support in sudden death / emergency situations, and complex day to day scenarios in a heavily regulated, operational environment.
Joanna Patil
Following a degree in Economics at Durham University, Joanna joined Deloitte UK where she worked for 12 years in various roles including Audit, Compliance & National Risk Management. Ultimately, as a Senior Manager, she became the Team Leader of the firm’s Financial Crime function, and the Deputy Money-Laundering Reporting Officer. Joanna has experience working with various regulators and law enforcement agencies, including supporting the development of Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing guidance for the Accountancy sector.
Joanna now works as an independent Financial Crime Consultant and also volunteers as an Advisor with Citizens Advice. She lives in East Berkshire with her family, and is an active member of the local school community.