Executive Team clarifications

The request was partially successful.

Dear West Midlands Police,
When I decided to defend myself in court against an alleged offence of marginally exceeding a 30mph speed limit at 5.45pm on 18th February 2005, as I tried to safely and carefully drive home after a hard day working as a pharmacist, I had no comprehension of how malicious and deceitful the police would be in response to my refusal to accept their offer of a £60 fixed penalty plus points, and how the magistrates would operate like automated puppets afraid of upsetting the system.

The Chief Constable at that time, Sir Paul Scott-Lee, was heavily involved in setting up the speed camera network but I notice from the WMP website that he has been completely deleted from the records, which is a shame because he must have done something worthwhile and memorable to get both a knighthood and a QPM.

It seems to be common practice to delete all reference to senior officers when they really should be recorded for posterity, having reached the top ranks of policing, and therefore I wish to post a FOI request to set the record straight.

FOI Q1. For the period February 1st 2005 until August 7th 2019, please provide a list, or preferably in tabular form, of all the officers and civilians who have existed with the status of Command Team (CT) (or Executive Team), their date of appointment to CT status and nominated role within CT, and date of departure or promotion from their originally appointed CT role.

FOI Q2. The current Executive Team, as displayed August 7th 2019, comprises of Dave Thompson QPM (Chief Con.), Louisa Rolfe (DCC),Sarah Boycott (ACC),Jayne Meir (ACC),Chris Johnson (ACC),Sue Southern (ACC), Mike Rogers (Specials Chief Officer), Iain O`Brian(Specials Deputy Chief Officer), Ali Layne-Smith (Director of people and organisation), and Neil Chamberlain( director of commercial services). Please advise as to the accuracy of your information displayed regarding Ali (Alison) Layne-Smith as on the 18th June it was announced she was appointed to the London Ambulance Service.
https://www.londonambulance.nhs.uk/2019/...

FOI Q3.Louisa Rolfe DCC received a MBE in March 2019 at Buckingham Palace, why is this honour not mentioned to update her profile?.
https://www.expressandstar.com/news/crim...

FOI Q4.Mike Rogers received a MBE in June 2018, quote “Special chief officer Rogers, aged 66, has served more than 47 years as a police volunteer and delivers about 80 hours of volunteer time a month”. https://www.expressandstar.com/news/2018...
Why is he totally ignored on the WM CT Website with the fake statement about him saying `profile coming soon`?

FOI Q5 Chris Johnson ACC was humbled and delighted in equal measure to receive a QPM from the Lord Lieutenant at a special ceremony Saturday (13 July). Why has his CT profile not been updated to display this honour before he leaves? Why does his profile say “ACC Johnson is proud to be from the West Midlands and lives in the region with his wife, who is also a police officer, and three children” when Savid Javid, M,P for Bromsgrove says on Facebook “ Today my constituent, Chris Johnson was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal. Thank you, Chris for your incredible bravery, leadership & community spirit”. This CT profile disguises the fact that Mr Johnson has moved away from his now crime ridden West Midlands roots.
https://www.facebook.com/sajidjavidbroms...

FOI Q6. There is no biography for Jayne Meir, Sue Southern and Iain O`Brien when a comparable police force, Greater Manchester Police, has biographies for all their Command Team including recent appointments? Who has the responsibility for preparing the biographies and uploading them to the website?

FOI Q7. Why is Iain O`Brien named on the Executive Team when he is only the deputy to the specials chief officer and, as part of the specials, is he paid merely expenses or an annual salary and, if so, how much?

FOI Q8 .Why is Vanessa Jardine named as an additional ACC midway down the police structure planogram, but not on the Executive Team header, and why is Matt Ward apparently now a Chief Superintendent again when he was recently announcing he had become an ACC?
https://www.west-midlands.police.uk/abou...

FOI Q9.How many people are actually on the payroll classed as ACC as of 07/08/2019?

End of FOI Requests.
Thanking you in anticipation of completion, I appreciate that you are already dealing with another request regarding identifing errant officers (at the bottom of the tree) clearly, but this is simply to produce more identity information regarding those at the top of the tree.

Yours faithfully,
Dennis Fallon (BScHons)

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Dear West Midlands Police,
Just for a permanent record, out of respect to an officer born locally and the only senior officer to demonstrate a genuine non-tokenistic attitude by consistently wearing a LGBT lanyard, this is the official WMP career profile described for ACC Chris Johnson. " Assistant Chief Constable Chris Johnson joined West Midlands Police in 1991 starting out as a PC in Acocks Green. His 27 year career has seen him rise through the ranks before becoming assistant chief constable in April 2018. He is currently the Assistant Chief Constable for Operations with overall responsibility for Force Contact, Force Response, Operations and CMPG. Prior to joining the Executive Team he was the neighbourhood commander for both Dudley and Birmingham. He was the senior officer for the Next Generation of Local Policing project, a key element of WMPs 2020 project that help transformed local policing across the force. In 2017 he led the multi-agency response to the major incident that was declared at the discovery of the largest unexploded munition found since the end of the war. His motivation for policing remains the same as when he joined, to protect those most vulnerable. As such he is proud to have led WMP approach to tackling hate crime, the delivery of service that recognises the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences and tackling violence through a multi-agency ‘public health’ model across Birmingham. ACC Johnson is proud to be from the West Midlands and lives in the region with his wife, who is also a police officer, and three children".

Yours faithfully,
Dennis Fallon (BScHons)

Dear West Midlands Police,
This email does not add to my FOI request, it is just to maintain a record as I believe that Ali Layne-Smith will be imminently deleted from your business, having achieved her Common Purpose objective of feminizing the Executive Team and is now moving to pastures new in London within 30 days, despite there being no mention of this on your website.
From WM Police site 09/08/2019 Quote "Ali Layne-Smith graduated from Durham University in 1991 and has over 20 years’ experience in Human Resources, Learning, and Organisation Development gained in large and medium sized international organisations. She has also worked within the public sector in the UK.
Ali joined West Midlands Police as the force’s first Director of People & Organisation Development in January 2017. Her role is to lead the department to ensure that the force has the people and organisational skills and capabilities necessary to be a great place to work for our officers and staff. Ali is married and has two children".End of quote.
I also note that you have moved the image of ACC Vanessa Jardine on to the Executive header yesterday to complete the lineup more rationally.
Yours faithfully,

Dennis Fallon(BScHons)

dennis fallon left an annotation ()

As of 19 AUGUST 2019 Ali Layne-Smith still appears on police website as Director of People but on 27 JUNE Chief Con Dave Thompson said on Twitter "We are sorry to see @AliLayneSmith leave but that means we have a vacancy for Exec Director of People and OD @WMPolice this is the top People Job in policing in 2019!",and website updated to show Louisa Rolfe OBE and Chris Johnson QPM, but poor old Mike Rogers, surely due to quit imminently after many years of voluntary service, sadly still does not have any C.V or awards mentioned.

dennis fallon left an annotation ()

Don`t know if police monitor these annotations but Ali Layne-Smith has now been deleted from website 19 August pm, but Mike Rogers still hasn`t had his Empire award added.

dennis fallon left an annotation ()

The Twitter address for ACC Chris Johnson is wrong, the correct address is https://twitter.com/ChrisJohnsonWMP

dennis fallon left an annotation ()

ACC Chris Johnson will probably hang on until after Christmas but he has posted a YouTube clip explaining his illness which will provide a permanent record
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRQNHwFG...

Freedom of Information,

5 Attachments

Dear Mr Fallon

 

FOI Request Reference: 13694/19

 

Thank you for your request for information, received 07 August 2019.

 

REQUEST

 

FOI Q1. For the period February 1st 2005 until August 7th 2019, please
provide a list, or preferably in tabular form, of all the officers and
civilians who have  existed with the status of Command Team (CT) (or
Executive Team), their date of appointment to CT status and nominated role
within CT, and date of departure or promotion from their originally
appointed CT role.

 

FOI Q2. The current Executive Team, as displayed August 7th 2019,
comprises of Dave Thompson QPM (Chief Con.), Louisa Rolfe (DCC),Sarah
Boycott (ACC),Jayne Meir (ACC),Chris Johnson (ACC),Sue Southern (ACC),
Mike Rogers (Specials Chief Officer), Iain O`Brian(Specials Deputy Chief
Officer), Ali Layne-Smith (Director of people and organisation), and Neil
Chamberlain( director of commercial services). Please advise as to the
accuracy of your information displayed regarding Ali (Alison) Layne-Smith 
as on the 18th June it was announced she was appointed to the London
Ambulance Service.

[1]https://www.londonambulance.nhs.uk/2019/...

 

FOI Q3.Louisa Rolfe DCC received a MBE in March 2019 at Buckingham Palace,
why is this honour not mentioned  to update her profile?.

[2]https://www.expressandstar.com/news/crim...

 

FOI Q4.Mike Rogers received a MBE in June 2018, quote "Special chief
officer Rogers, aged 66, has served more than 47 years as a police
volunteer and delivers about 80 hours of volunteer time a month".  
[3]https://www.expressandstar.com/news/2018...

Why is he totally ignored on the WM CT Website with the fake statement
about him saying `profile coming soon`?

 

FOI Q5 Chris Johnson ACC was humbled and delighted in equal measure to
receive a QPM from the Lord Lieutenant at a special ceremony Saturday (13
July). Why has his CT profile not been updated to display this honour
before he leaves? Why does his profile say "ACC Johnson is proud to be
from the West Midlands and lives in the region with his wife, who is also
a police officer, and three children" when Savid Javid, M,P for Bromsgrove
says on Facebook " Today my constituent, Chris Johnson was awarded the
Queen¿s Police Medal. Thank you, Chris for your incredible bravery,
leadership & community spirit". This  CT profile disguises the fact that
Mr Johnson has moved away from his now crime ridden West Midlands roots.

[4]https://www.facebook.com/sajidjavidbroms...

 

FOI Q6. There is no biography for Jayne Meir, Sue Southern and Iain
O`Brien when a comparable police force, Greater Manchester Police, has
biographies for all their Command Team including recent appointments? Who
has the responsibility for preparing the biographies and uploading them to
the website?

 

FOI Q7. Why is Iain O`Brien named on the Executive Team when he is only
the deputy to the specials chief officer and, as part of the specials, is
he paid merely expenses or an annual salary and, if so, how much?

 

FOI Q8 .Why is Vanessa Jardine named as an additional ACC midway down the
police structure planogram, but not on the Executive Team header, and why
is Matt Ward apparently now a Chief Superintendent again when he was
recently announcing he had become an ACC?

[5]https://www.west-midlands.police.uk/abou...

 

FOI Q9.How many people are actually on the payroll classed as ACC as of
07/08/2019?

 

RESPONSE

 

Please find attached (13694_19_attachment.pdf).

 

 

RIGHT OF APPEAL

 

Your attention is drawn to your right to request a re-examination of your
case under West Midlands Police review procedure, which can be found at:

 

[6]http://foi.west-midlands.police.uk/revie...

 

Please note that such an appeal must be received within 40 working days of
the date of this correspondence. Any such request received after this time
will only be considered at the discretion of the FOI Unit.

 

If you require any further information, then please do not hesitate to
contact me.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

David Notley | Freedom of Information Officer
Corporate Communications | West Midlands Police
T: 101 (ext. 801 2068) | M: 07392 863225

Preventing crime, protecting the public and helping those in need.

[7]If it’s not 999, search WMP Online

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Dear Freedom of Information,
I do not wish to appeal your response which has, in fact, been top quality in terms of staff structure in attachment 5, but I would appreciate clarification as to the explanations that the Command Team profiles are provided by the executive team members themselves and Digital Services Team upload them when advised.
The issue is that Greater Manchester Police, for example, have completed staff profiles for all their senior team, even recent additions, yet WM police have not chased up any profiles for ACC`s Vanessa Jardine,Jayne Meir, or Sue Southern, or Specials Deputy Chief Officer Iain O`Brien who have been in post for months, or Mike Rogers MBE who has actually apparently been in post for five years. It is disingenous and unprofessional to state `biographies coming soon`when that is clearly not true and the public have the right to know the origin of the all white and largely female Executive Team to understand the current nature of West Midlands policing. Obviously CC Thomson is unaware of these PR failings but who is responsible for chasing up these discrepancies, presumeably the HR department? Thanking you in anticipation of clarification.

Yours sincerely,

Dennis Fallon(BScHons)

Freedom of Information,

Please accept this as an acknowledgement of receipt of your e-mail by the
Freedom of Information Unit.
 
If your email is a valid request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act, your request will be dealt with within the legislative
deadline of 20 working days.  Should we be unable to meet this deadline
for any reason you will be notified as soon as possible.
 
Please note that if your email is a request is for your own personal data
you should make a subject access request to the Data Protection Unit.  You
can do this by completing a WA162 form, which is available on the West
Midlands Police website.  Search the West Midlands Police website for
'Subject Access' or go directly to this page:
[1]https://www.west-midlands.police.uk/abou...
 
If you require further information please contact 101 and ask for the
Freedom of Information Unit.
 
You might find what you are looking for on our website:
[2]http://foi.west-midlands.police.uk/
 
If you have information about any crime, you can contact us on the
non-emergency number: 101.
 
In an emergency, for example where life is in danger or a crime in
progress, call 999.

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Midlands Police. All West Midlands Police email activity is monitored for
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responsibility is accepted by West Midlands Police for any loss or damage
arising in any way from the receipt or use of this email.

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Freedom of Information,

Dear Mr Fallon

FOI Request Reference: 13694/19

I write in response to your additional enquiry of 23rd September 2019 regarding FOI 13694/19 that was responded to on 2nd September 2019.
The force advised that there is no formal policy with regard to the Executive Team personal biographies, this section of the force website is managed by the Digital Services Team who will make updates and amendments when advised. Profiles are supplied by the Executive Team member.

REQUEST
You have requested clarification in relation to WM police have not chased up any profiles, and who is responsible for chasing up these discrepancies.

RESPONSE
Please be advised that this office deals with Freedom of Information requests for specific recorded information.
There is no specific recorded information held in relation to your request for clarification, and the authority does not have to answer your question if this would mean creating new information or giving an opinion or judgement that is not already recorded.
The force has already advised that there is no formal policy with regard to the Executive Team personal biographies, and this includes chasing up profiles to be added/amended.

Please be advised that Freedom of Information legislation cannot be used to circumvent normal business processes in place to deal with issues or complaints, this office does not deal with complaints and will not comment or respond to additional enquiries submitted outside of a FOI request. Should you have an issue with any of the force processes please re-direct these as appropriate.

https://www.west-midlands.police.uk/serv...

I hope that this is of assistance

Yours Sincerely

Mrs R Williams

59614 Rebecca Williams l FOI Manager
Lloyd House l West Midlands Police
T: 101 (ext 801 2068)
Preventing crime, protecting the public and helping those in need.
If it’s not 999, search WMP Online

This email is intended for the addressee only and may contain privileged or confidential information. If received in error, please notify the originator immediately. Any unauthorised use, disclosure, copying or alteration of this email is strictly forbidden. Views or opinions expressed in this email do not necessarily represent those of West Midlands Police. All West Midlands Police email activity is monitored for virus, racist, obscene, or otherwise inappropriate activity. No responsibility is accepted by West Midlands Police for any loss or damage arising in any way from the receipt or use of this email.

Dear Mrs Williams,
Thank you for confirming that there is no specific recorded information held in relation to your request for clarification, and the authority does not have to answer your question.
This helps explain why no one appears accountable for policy failures and P.R deficiencies exist.

I shall mark this request as CLOSED, thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Dennis Fallon (BScHons)