resource, the Ireland and UK support services group, has announced the appointment of Russ Smith to resource as ‘Police and Justice Services Director’ for GB.

Russ will be focused on building relationships between the networks established by the Security Advisory Board with those Police Forces across England & Wales that are considering outsourcing. He will also be working with the Security Advisory Board  to further develop the work completed to date on our Police Sector offer as well as ensuring that we apply the necessary standards to bidding for new Police business across GB by utilising not only his experience but that of the SAB.

Russ has recently retired as a Chief Superintendent with the West Midlands Police where his  long career spanned considerable periods of change, during which he undertook a variety of roles, including staff officer to two Chief Constables and the Senior Investigating Officer for a number of serious offences. Russell has also commanded a number of very high profile event operations including the recent visit to Birmingham of Pope Benedict XVI and the first live televised leaders pre-election debate at Birmingham University. He was also a firearms, football and public order commander.

More recently he commanded two challenging policing areas in north Birmingham before moving to head up one of the largest organizational change project in the force's history; 'Programme Paragon'. One of the programme’s objective was to develop and deliver process improvement to the force. Thus realizing potential cost savings of over £30 million. This included the initial scoping and a feasibility  study of outsourcing some resources and this work continues within West Midlands Police.

Russell holds a BA (Hon) degree in Policing and Criminal Justice and an MBA (public sector), he is a qualified senior national assessor and is also an affiliate member of the Institute for Learning. Russell holds an honorary lecturer role with Nottingham University's forensic psychology courses.

Andy Vaughan, Managing Director of resource GB, said: “This newly emerging market sector represents a major opportunity for resource and I am delighted to welcome Russ to the company and have the opportunity to utilise his expertise and knowledge in developing this area of the business”.