Day in the Life - TOEX Director

This feature piece has been written by TOEX Director, Det Chief Superintendent Kate Thacker, following questions posed by the TOEX network. It will be a regular article in the e-magazine and on the TOEX website exploring the range of roles TOEX staff do across the network. 

Tell us about what you do on a typical day.
As TOEX Director I have a national scope, which means my work is a little more predictable than the operational policing roles I have enjoyed over the last 30 years. Much of the work is done online, whether working from home or in the office with the national team, but it also involves regular travel across the UK to meet partners from policing, wider criminal justice and key stakeholders.

My workload across the day means wearing several different ‘hats’ and ensures that I am kept both busy and challenged. I attend numerous national thematic threat groups; present at CPD events/conferences; contribute to NPCC strategic planning for public protection, SOC and serious crime threats; advise on technical platforms and enablers for policing investigators; secure and manage our £12m annual budget and hold the TOEX operational and technical workstreams to account.

No two days are the same and with policing continuing to experience significant change, TOEX will continue to flex to meet the needs of the service. Never a typical day, but also never a dull moment!

 

What challenges does your role encounter?
Whilst TOEX has successfully grown into a national network, ensuring effective service delivery across the eleven teams, when they are all tasked and line managed by different organisations can be tricky. Repeated communications and engagement events hope to address any awareness-gap of what services TOEX provides, but colleagues often change roles, so this is an ongoing requirement. 

Our technical programme has delivered unprecedented success in the last three years, yet despite extensive and independently validated evidence of cost and time savings as well as improved efficiencies to the frontline, offering the services beyond TOEX has required significant determination and resilience. 

All forces have a need to innovate, but there is no singular path for technical programmes to receive governance, funding or approval. This means that the data and digital landscape is both busy and sometimes confusing. The unwavering support of our Home Office TCSAU sponsors has meant we have been able to deliver timely, agile and effective tech into the hands of frontline investigators, for a fraction of the cost similar initiatives. 

The secret to this success lies in effective collaborations with industry and key law enforcement contacts, agile and flexible approaches to problems and the drive for real-world operational delivery.

 

What’s one thing you do that the rest of the team don’t know about?
I have 10-year-old twins at home and my office desk is covered in their ‘gifts’ to me - fidget toys, Lego creations and home-made ‘objet d’art’! 

It looks like a very colourful bomb site, so whilst I am thankful these tokens are beyond the view of the Teams webcam, they are also a sentimental reminder of the stages of their childhoods and have proved calming on stressful days.

I have been known to make use of these tactile creations in a few longer meetings but do my best not to get distracted nor caught out playing with Lego chickens, Matchbox police cars or squishy fidgets!

 

What do you do for your own wellbeing? 
Time with friends and family is a recharge for me, but we must all make sure we never feel guilty for carving off a little quiet time too. 

We spend a significant proportion of our lives at work, so being part of a healthy work environment makes a big difference. I am blessed to work alongside a great team, who have a good sense of humour and make even mundane days enjoyable. 

Away from work, I enjoy time with my wife and our twins, who ensure life is busy, loud and full of new experiences. I particularly enjoy fishing with our son, as we learned together after Covid lockdown and, yes, he’s already a better angler than I am.

When I need a few minutes to myself, I’ll have a ride on my motorbike or walk our dog (not at the same time) and enjoy some of Norfolk’s coastline. Lovely!

 

What has changed most in policing in the last decade? 

The technical revolution has yielded extraordinary opportunity, but it has also permanently changed the way we investigate. Every investigation has a digital footprint, which can prove crucial to our activity, but also present challenges in lawfully acquiring, understanding and then using that data.

Each stage of that process must be carefully handled to preserve the integrity of the information, but policing has inevitable resourcing, capability and financial limitations.

Criminals are increasingly using technical platforms, encryption and tools that obfuscate the identity of perpetrators to evade law enforcement, and this impact is not just felt within the SOC space.

Gone are the days of paper-based investigations and policing must keep pace.

 

What advice would you give to your younger self when you first started in policing?

“Ask for help when you need it – there is a great professional and personal support network within policing.”

Policing is a very demanding and absorbing occupation, and we all get used to long hours, challenging workloads and difficult subject matter. Whilst some of these strains are of the moment, others have a cumulative effect and on occasions fatigue, emotion strain and an imbalance between work and home life can sneak in. We need to be kind to ourselves and our colleagues and recognise when support or a break is needed.

Over the last 30 years, I have found levels of resilience that I didn’t know I had, following several professional and personal challenges, but that is almost entirely due to asking for and being provided with support by the exceptional colleagues around me. 

 

Why have you stayed in policing?
I wanted to be an officer since I wore my uncle’s uniform at the age of four and the ambition never diminished. There aren’t many careers that offer such a wide diversity of roles and opportunities, that present so large a range of challenges, nor demand such a high level of personal resilience, as policing does.

I haven’t yet met an officer or staff colleague that hasn’t questioned their choice at some stage in their career, but policing is a vocation, and public service offers an extraordinary chance to contribute to society. That return on commitment is the reason most of us stay.

My service has given me the excitement of uniformed response policing, the focus found within several Detective roles and ranks, the uniqueness of surveillance and serious crime investigations, and the resilience and drive needed within senior management roles. I have not measured my personal achievements by rank, but rather by the diversity and opportunity presented by a unique career and the professional friendships made along the way.

 

What does this role give/mean to you?
In 2019, I was given a unique opportunity to design a national policing programme (TOEX) from the ground up and whilst stressful at times, it has been a huge privilege and a very steep learning curve!  Having not experienced such a significant level of trust, flexibility and empowerment before, it became clear to me that by giving the team time and space to be creative, extraordinary progress was possible.

My greatest achievement within TOEX has been to surround myself with dedicated, capable and innovative individuals, all of whom have contributed to its success and helped to secure TOEX’s future in policing. 

I have a huge sense of pride for the progress we have made together and I’m confident there’s more to come.

 

What TOEX technical innovation particularly stands out to you and why?

The TOEX Capabilities Environment is a first for policing. The range of Apps, saving opportunities approaching £40m, and the feedback from frontline users is exceptional.

The service is now offered across all forces in England and Wales, with excellent economies of scale available for the development and hosting of tech tools for policing. It’s an agile, effective and timely means to harness innovation and support investigators with practical tools to make their workloads more manageable.

 

What is the priority short- and long-term goal for TOEX?

Short-term, I want to secure the next three years’ funding, so the operational TOEX response continues to deliver intelligence and analytical expertise via the ROCU network. With this secured, it would take the programme to its 8th year as a national capability and hopefully support NPCC consideration as to permanent contracts and baseline funding. The operational teams are contributing effectively to the disruption of serious, pernicious public protection threats, and responding to governmental priorities, such as group-based CSE. Programme permanency would represent recognition of the value that service delivery brings to policing and our communities.

Longer-term, I would like to build on the ground-breaking progress of our technical team and industry partnerships. With the Capabilities Environment continuing to expand its reach, user base and functionality, plus us leveraging TOEX advanced analytics and data development in support of Ministerial priorities, it is time to reconsider our tech workstreams as a ‘research and development’ function for policing. This will involve continued collaboration with the National Data Analytics Office (NDAO) to ensure that this expertise delivers against programme requirements but is also contributes to the national data and digital strategy. These are very exciting times!

 

In the next quarter, we’ll hear from DCI Pat Thompson, TOEX Technical Lead, on all things that make him tick.