Women in the Police Conference

Anna Rickards is a Detective Inspector serving in Greater Manchester Police. Anna has spent most of her service in the Criminal Investigation Department and has been a Family Liaison Officer deployed to murder investigations for over 10 years. Anna is Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) trained and is a Police Mortuary Operations Co-ordinator (PMOC) for mass casualty disasters.

Alongside her day jobs Anna has chaired the Association of Women in Police for Greater Manchester Police for 5 years and is a committee member for the British Association of Women in Police operating on the awards team. Anna is also a Board member for the International Association for Women in Police (IAWP) and is the IAWP Western Europe Regional Co-ordinator.

Anna has operated in both uniform and detective front line roles whilst part time at both Sergeant and Inspector ranks. Anna is passionate about supporting women in policing through making flexible and part time options available to serving officers and staff to remain in front line roles.

Emily joined the IOPC in April 2017 as an Operations Team Leader. She became an Operations Manager in 2020 and has worked in both the North West and North East regions, before taking up the role of Regional Director North East. Emily has been Decision Maker for a number of high profile, complex investigations, ensuring joint working with multi agency reviews.  She has made a number of local and national recommendations, with the view to improving policing. Since 2019 Emily has been the national technical lead for the IOPC’s network for the thematic area of Abuse of Position for Sexual Purpose. In this role she has coordinated the work of the organisation’s Technical Advisors, reviewed and implemented guidance for staff and worked with partner agencies to identify themes and learning. She has attended round table events with external stakeholders to share learning and best practice, with the aim of identifying this form of corruption and holding those responsible to account. Emily is the joint Operational Lead for the IOPC’s work on Violence Against Women and Girls, supporting the dedicated team working with the aim of helping to drive improvements to policing practice and building confidence in those who may have reason to make a complaint.

Marcus (מרקוס) Griffiths is a Policing Standards Manager at the College of Policing, leading on, and a subject matter expert, on the areas of ethics, counter corruption, vetting, police complaints & misconduct, and the police barred & advisory Lists. Marcus retired as a police officer having spent the last 7 years of his career (including a secondment with the College), working in the professional standards area, and returned to the College to continue the work he is so passionate about. Marcus has delivered key College products for these areas, such as; Guidance on outcomes in police misconduct proceedings, Code of Ethics, Code of Practice for Ethical Policing, Vetting Code of Practice, and Vetting Approved Professional Practice. Marcus also delivers training for these areas. Prior to joining the police Marcus worked as a science teacher. Marcus is currently undertaking a criminology PhD that is researching vetting decision making.

Sarah-Jayne Bray has been a part of the policing family for over 20 years, joining South Wales Police as a typist and enjoying a varied career that has taken her through many roles locally and nationally.

She has programme managed a number of national portfolios, including the transition from ACPO to NPCC as well as the Inquisitive Crime Portfolio and the Sexual Misconduct portfolio.  Now in Thames Valley Police as NPCC Investigator Resilience and TVP Cultural Engagement Manager, she has overseen the introduction of Op Reassure, a comprehensive suite of interventions that enables leaders of all levels to not just identify and respond to inappropriate behaviour, but to prevent it at the first instance.

An experienced internal engagement manager, SJB is also the programme Manager for the Recruitment, Retention and Wellbeing of Investigator portfolio, She initiated the creation of the Investigator Wellbeing Toolkit and is lead for the annual Investigator Wellbeing Week of Action, attracting more than 4,000 registrations making it one of the largest engagement events in the wellbeing calendar.

A passionate supporter of diversity and inclusion, SJB was chair of the SWP Gender Equality Network, chairing the All Wales Gender Equality Network meeting throughout 2021.  She is a member of the Thames Valley Women’s Network, leading the TVWN Boost Programme to improve the confidence of women in TVP.

Tracy is the President of the Disabled Police Association, the first woman to hold this office.

She is a Detective Inspector and has been working in policing for over 30 years, serving with both Bedfordshire and Essex Police.  Tracy has led Child Abuse, Sexual Offences and Domestic Abuse investigation teams, is a qualified Police trainer and has an extensive background in managing the investigation of public complaints and police conduct.

She is neurodivergent, having only been assessed as such within the last few years.  This discovery led her to reflect, re-evaluate and reorientate not only her career but her entire life.

She is passionate about helping to create positive environments where everyone can be seen and heard, whatever their background and whoever they are.

Tracy is of South African Heritage, is a Mum and Grandma and also follows the Buddhist tradition.

I am a Detective Inspector with 22 year’s service working for Essex Police. I am married with 2 children, aged 15 & 5. I have worked in a number of roles within Essex Police, including CID, Custody and Response. I currently work in the Crime and Public Protection Command. I am also part of the force’s LGBTQ+ network, for which I was Chair for 5 years and am now the Deputy Chair. I am also a Deputy Chair for the Regional LGBTQ+ Network. I am proud to be part of this Network. As such I am a great advocate for a great Network with Essex Police that offers support and guidance for anyone who identifies or has family/friends who identify as LGBTQ+. No-body should feel negativity because of who they are.

Sarah Johnson is a Temp Chief Superintendent from Northamptonshire Police and currently seconded as the Delivery Lead for the Police Race Action Plan. Whilst she has spent most of her career within Northamptonshire, Sarah has been involved in national work across a broad range of portfolios, including the NPCC Gender Portfolio, Police/Fire collaboration and as the Staff Officer on the Performance Management Coordination Committee.

She started her career in 2000 and has undertaken roles in response, neighbourhood policing and as a Staff Officer. In 2006, Sarah was promoted to the rank of Inspector and took up post as a Force Incident Manager, where she first commenced her career as a firearms commander. Sarah continued to develop both her professional and operational career, and as a Strategic Firearms Commander, she is one of the longest serving and most experienced Firearms Commanders in the force with 17 years under her belt.

In 2016, Sarah was promoted to Chief Inspector where she moved into investigations as a Detective Chief Inspector. She went on to gain further promotion to Superintendent in 2019 and in that rank has undertaken the roles of People Services Lead, Head of Specialist Ops, Head of Prevention and Intervention, Op Talla Silver Commander and Corporate Services.

Sarah undertook the Silver Public Order and Public Safety course in 2020, Gold in 2023 and apart from her DCI role, she has worked in specialist operations roles, regional collaborations, and is currently the diversity lead for the Public Order and Public Safety NPCC Portfolio. She continues to work with forces and organisations across the UK to increase the visibility and profile of women in policing and awareness of neurodiversity in addition to her role within the Police Race Action Plan.

Katryna Smyth has spent nearly a decade in the graduate recruitment sector and is currently Head of Recruitment at Police Now, having joined at the charity’s inception in 2016. Previously working as police staff within the Metropolitan Police Service, she has combined a passion for policing with recognised expertise in high-volume assessment and selection, recruitment operations and onboarding. Police Now attract, recruit and train individuals across three national programmes and Katryna’s team is responsible for their end-to-end selection and recruitment, creating tailored candidate journeys and bespoke assessments focussed on excellent candidate care with a diversity-focussed approach. She is a regular panel and conference speaker and has recently judged the Institute of Student Employers annual award for Commitment to Improving Diversity through Student Resourcing.

Erik Rivas is a seasoned professional with over 13 years of expertise in employer branding and recruitment marketing across multiple industries, including graduate recruitment, technology, talent management, HR, and professional services. For the past year and a half, he has led the marketing team at Police Now. Erik’s team is responsible for attracting and onboarding top talent, supporting Police Now in significantly enhancing diversity within its national graduate programmes. This aligns with the organisation’s mission to transform communities by recruiting and developing outstanding and diverse officers for the frontline. Erik has been featured on various podcasts, sharing insights on employer branding and diversity.

Janette has been a strategic leader in policing for over 30 years across a number of forces up to the rank of Chief Constable. She has experience of operational command as well as transformational change. She has a strong background in equality, diversity and inclusion within policing serving on a number of national forums including leading on Disability, Gypsies and Travellers and strategic workforce data. She was a senior police advisor on workforce transformation for the College of Policing and Director of Standards. In August 2019 she was appointed as Programme Director for the Police Uplift Programme an unprecedented growth in policing over 3 years, the successful programme resulted in the recruitment of over 47k officers and a redesign of attraction, recruitment and retention processes and workforce data. Currently she is a strategic workforce advisor for National Police Chiefs Council supporting pay and conditions. She is a Non-Executive Director for the Ministry of Defence a panel member the Department of Education, Teaching Regulation Agency.

Kathryn joined the Metropolitan Police Service in 2007 after completing a Law degree and the Legal Practice Course. Kathryn spent her probationary and early years policing Westminster in central London. Having grown up in a very white, middle class rural farming community this was massively eye opening. These early exposures to multiple crime sets, different cultures and busy inner city life quickly helped her to develop the ability to make informed decisions and fuelled her passion for policing and commitment in making policing a service equally available to all our of communities. Kathryn performed a number of front line operational policing roles before joining S019, the Metropolitan Police Service elite firearms unit being one of very few women in the department. Kathryn was based in South London and spent time responding to dangerous situations learning how to tactically respond, making decisions in difficult high pressured situations and protecting the lives of members of the public and colleagues.

In 2017 Kathryn transferred, as a firearms officer, to West Mercia Police where she is still serving today. West Mercia provided her with the opportunity to Police the rural communities where she had grown up, something Kathryn speaks about with huge passion. This move has given Kathryn the opportunity to showcase her cross pollination of skills between rural and inner city policing.

Having spent the first ten years of her career in front line operational roles in 2018 Kathryn applied for a job in the forces resolution team to gain insights into how case files and investigations were progressed.

In 2019 Kathryn had her first child closely followed by her second. On returning to work in 2022 she was promoted to the rank of Sergeant and applied for a specialist job running the forces positive action team. Kathryn has used this opportunity to gain an oversight of the forces working policies, working at a strategic level in collaboration with other forces and the college of policing and advising senior officers around attraction, recruitment, retention and promotion of colleagues with protected characteristics. Kathryn has built relationships with diverse communities throughout what has been a difficult era across policing. Kathryn is committed to diversifying the workforce of policing enabling us to provide the communities with the service they deserve and ensure forces are equip with the facilities and policies to support our diversifying workforce. Kathryn has been recognised for her achievements within West Mercia Police and was nominated for Police Officer of the year at the 2024 Quality Policing Awards.

In 2022 Kathryn founded the National Police Breastfeeding Network. Kathryn speaks of the complexities around her maternity period, policing and the effect this has had upon her career progression. The lack of contact, communication and forces knowledge around supporting colleagues whilst pregnant and returning to work seemed like a post code lottery depending upon department, managers interest and resources. Kathryn considered that these issues may exist in other forces and now Chairs a network that has representation internationally from 44 different forces, has facilitated the training of 335 breast buddies, built support networks, challenged and amended HR policies, raised awareness, ensured colleagues have the facilities needed to support a growing representation of females across our police forces and helped to retain female colleagues within policing. Kathryn was nominated for the special recognition award with the British Association Women in Policing in 2022 for her work with the Network and retention of female colleagues within policing. Kathryn has been nominated again this year and been successful in achieving the coaching and mentoring award.

In 2023 Kathryn passed the Inspectors examination and is currently seeking promotion to the rank of Inspector.

Dr Keely Duddin is a Lecturer in Policing Practice and Organisation at the Open University and leads the Policing stream for the new OU Centre for Protecting Women Online. As a Chartered Psychologist with a PhD in Health Psychology, she has a rich background in translating research into actionable strategies, particularly in the domains of well-being and mental health with a dedicated focus on maternal experiences in policing and perinatal mental health. Her interest extends to women’s rights and working parents’ issues within policing contexts. Previously, she served as the Head of Research for a UK police force and worked as a Special Constable in a domestic violence unit. Her ongoing collaborations with police forces aim to elevate practices and facilitate knowledge exchange to enhance support, particularly for women and other underrepresented groups in policing

Hayley Ayley  is a dedicated mother of five and a Warwickshire police officer with twenty-four years of service. She stands out as one of the longest-serving National Board Members for the Police Federation, bringing over a decade of experience and leadership to the role.

Throughout her tenure, Hayley has undertaken various responsibilities within the Federation, including the establishment of the pioneering Women in Policing Award, which celebrates the exceptional contributions of female officers. Her recent projects have concentrated on enhancing wellbeing initiatives and strengthening the women’s network within the police force.

Hayley’s passion for women’s health is evident through her leadership in the Federation’s menopause advocacy work, striving to create a supportive and informed environment for all officers. Her commitment to these causes reflects her dedication to fostering a healthier, more inclusive police community

Belinda Goodwin has been a dedicated member of the Metropolitan Police since 2002 and has served as a representative since 2013. Belinda primarily worked in frontline operational roles until 2018, when she was elected to the National Board. Since joining the board, she has led initiatives focused on wellbeing and has recently been elected to co-lead the Parliamentary portfolio. This role enables her to engage directly with MPs, MSPs, and other key figures who can support legislative changes that benefit police officers.

Belinda places welfare at the forefront of her agenda and is committed to improving conditions not only for the officers she represents but for the entire police service. She thrives on making positive changes and negotiates with chief officers and commissioners to advocate on behalf of her colleagues.

Anna Rickards is a Detective Inspector serving in Greater Manchester Police. Anna has spent most of her service in the Criminal Investigation Department and has been a Family Liaison Officer deployed to murder investigations for over 10 years. Anna is Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) trained and is a Police Mortuary Operations Co-ordinator (PMOC) for mass casualty disasters.

Alongside her day jobs Anna has chaired the Association of Women in Police for Greater Manchester Police for 5 years and is a committee member for the British Association of Women in Police operating on the awards team. Anna is also a Board member for the International Association for Women in Police (IAWP) and is the IAWP Western Europe Regional Co-ordinator.

Anna has operated in both uniform and detective front line roles whilst part time at both Sergeant and Inspector ranks. Anna is passionate about supporting women in policing through making flexible and part time options available to serving officers and staff to remain in front line roles.