Our people

Charmaine joined the IOPC in September 2023. As Acting Regional Director for London, she is the public face of the organisation at regional level and works with police forces and communities to address the challenge of building greater trust and confidence in policing.  

She is responsible for ensuring that investigations are carried out in a timely and consistent way, that decisions are evidence-based and transparent, and that our work is understood, shared widely and helps to drive improvement.

Charmaine’s background is in the wider public and not-for-profit sectors. Most recently she was British Consul in Spain for nine years with the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office. She previously spent more than 20 years specialising in performance improvement - reviewing, inspecting and redesigning customer access to public services as an independent consultant as well as with the Local Government Association’s Improvement and Development Agency, the Audit Commission, Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire County Councils.

Charmaine also worked in community and overseas development on issues as diverse as domestic violence, housing and homelessness, discrimination in the criminal justice system, and sustainable development.  She has been a lifelong volunteer – a supplementary school tutor, school governor, parole review panel member, board member, mentor, and accredited mental health first aider. Charmaine is an Independent Chair for the Home Office’s pilot Offensive Weapons Homicide Reviews.

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 and championing the voice of victims and families.  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 was also the joint Operational Lead for the IOPC’s work on Violence Against Women and Girls, and supported 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.

Prior to joining the IOPC, Emily worked for the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman as an Investigations Manager and General Medical Council as an Investigator. 

Emily read Law at Warwick University and completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice at Inn’s of Court School of Law. 

Catherine joined the IPCC in 2006 as a lead investigator where she secured a wealth of experience investigating a wide variety of high profile and complex investigations. She joined the Hillsborough investigation in 2013 and worked as a Deputy Senior Investigator and Senior Investigator with responsibilities including disclosure, the Major Incident Room, and complaints. Before her current role, Catherine had worked for five years as an Operations Manager for the North-West acting as a senior decision-maker on serious and complex investigations. 

Catherine has a MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice and has a background in the civil service. 

Graham joined the IPCC in May 2004 as an Investigator in our London Office and rose to jointly lead the Croydon office as an Operations Manager. Graham was integral to establishing the IPCC training team, accreditation programme and many of the policies and practices which are still championed within the IOPC today. He brings a wealth of operational and leadership experience to his post having been involved in and overseen a significant number of high-profile investigations throughout his career. Graham is our national lead for counter terrorism and currently the Senior Responsible Owner for our Improving Operational Delivery (IOD) programme, a three-year programme designed to ensure the Operations Directorate can meet the challenges of the future.

Prior to joining, he served with her Majesty’s Armed Forces and spent six years as an operator and team leader running covert surveillance operations in the UK and overseas. He is dedicated to stakeholder engagement, the welfare and continuous development of our people and organisation, and improving public confidence in policing.

Prior to taking up his role as a Regional Director at the IOPC, Derrick was an IPCC Commissioner, having joined the organisation in January 2013. Like all operational commissioners, Derrick was responsible for providing independent oversight of, and taking ultimate responsibility for, our investigations, casework and the promotion of public confidence in the complaints system.

Derrick was previously Chief Executive of the Rights and Equality Council and before that was CEO of Sandwell Chamber of Commerce. He has a long history of working with communities in the UK, and founded and chaired a number of Independent Advisory Groups including Birmingham Reducing Gang Violence 3. He also chaired the National Independent Advisory Group, advising the government on violent crime and anti-social behaviour and he sat on the national DNA Database Ethics Group from 2008-2013.

David joined the then IPCC in 2004, and has worked in a variety of operational roles over the years, including Investigator, Head of Casework and, most latterly, Head of National Operations.  David’s first director role came during 2019/20, when he temporarily undertook the role of IOPC Regional Director North East. David became IOPC South West Regional Director in June 2021. He assumed the role of Director (Cardiff Office) in January 2023, and is now responsible for operational delivery across the South West of England and Wales.  

Based in the Cardiff office, David carries out his oversight responsibility by meeting regularly with senior officers, Police and Crime Commissioners, elected officials, community representatives and both local and national stakeholders, to ensure effective and open communication.

David is also the our senior sponsor for the project to design, build and implement a new case management system. This new system is integral to the successful and efficient running of our organisation. Designing a system which will support operational delivery and meet our needs for the future is a key priority within our five year strategy.

Sarah is currently seconded to act as the decision maker for complaints and conduct allegations against the police arising from the Hillsborough stadium disaster in 1989.

Her substantive role is Regional Director for the South East.  

Sarah is the senior sponsor for the IOPC Age and Pride LGBTQ+ staff networks.

Prior to joining the IOPC, she was Head of Legal Services at the East of England Development Agency. Before that, Sarah Green was an area solicitor for the eastern region of the Legal Aid Board and then held a number of senior management roles nationally within the Legal Services Commission.  

Before moving to the public sector, she worked as a litigator for a large solicitors’ firm representing trade union clients, including leading a national team responsible for private criminal prosecutions on behalf of public sector employees assaulted at work. 

Mel joined the IPCC in 2004 and has spent most of her career investigating, overseeing, and acting as Decision Maker on serious and sensitive cases. She has extensive experience of reviewing police handling of Violence Against Women and Girls, including domestic homicide review. She was the founding Chair of the IOPC’s subject matter expert network on domestic abuse and is a former Trustee of Welsh Women’s Aid. Her other areas of professional interest include major crime review, missing person investigations, Abuse of Position for a Sexual Purpose (APSP), firearms licensing, and leadership and management.

Mel has also led on a number of organisational change initiatives, establishing the IOPC’s Trainee Investigator Programme in 2011, writing the IOPC’s bespoke Investigator accreditation qualification in 2012, and developing investigative report writing teams. Prior to taking up her Director role in January 2023, Mel led the Wales/SW investigations team as Operations Manager for many years, and also acted as IOPC Head of Quality, Standards and Oversight in 2020/21.

Prior to joining the IOPC Mel read law at King’s College London. She has since completed a Masters in Law at the University of Bristol, and an MBA at The Open University. She is a Chartered Manager and qualified higher education lecturer, and has taught law part-time to adults since 2003, most recently at The Open University. She is currently completing a doctorate on the influence of cognitive biases on investigative decision making.