Dr Karen Stow BSc, MSc, MBA, PgCE, FFS

Forensic Science

After graduating with a MSc in Forensic Science from Strathclyde University, Karen was the Head of the Forensic Services Laboratory at Greater Manchester Police for 10 years. Responsible for all in-house forensic laboratory services including finger and footwear mark visualisation, questioned document analysis, drug testing, forensic imaging she led on quality and health & safety managing complex projects including laboratory design.

Until January 2012, Karen was the chair of the National Fingerprint Development Laboratories Group, responsible for the strategic direction and good practice. She also chaired the East Midlands Police Forces Laboratories and the Footwear & Intelligence Groups. She was also the National Technical Lead for Forensic Mark Visualisation. Since then Karen has assisted in the review of the Home Office CAST Finger Mark Visualisation Manual (2014) and has conducted numerous research projects within the field.

Karen has written a number of publications

Management & Leadership

As Scientific Support Manager for Derbyshire Constabulary Karen was responsible for the strategic leadership of a team operating within diverse forensic areas including Laboratory Services, Crime Scene Investigation, Forensic and Drug Submissions, Forensic Identification (fingerprints, footwear, gloves & tyre marks), Forensic Intelligence, Forensic Imaging, Facial Identification, Hi Tech Crime, and Forensic Training. She was also responsible for a multi million pound budget, forward planning, policy formulation, service management, health & safety, quality, human resource management, recruitment & selection, performance management and customer satisfaction.

Until January 2012 Karen was a member of the NPIA Forensic21 Business Change Group, the ACPO Forensic Science & Innovation Group, the ACPO National Forensic Procurement User Group. She also chaired the East Midlands Police Forces' Forensic Supplier performance Meetings and was deputy chair of the ACPO East Midlands Forensic Sciences Group. Karen was also a member of the NPIA Forensic Case Management User Group.

Karen's achievements include;

• Technical lead for a multi million pound, multi-agency Forensic Procurement tender resulting in £5 million savings across the 5 East Midlands Police forces as well as project managing a number of other tender exercises including major re-structuring, design and implementation of services, capital and services procurement 
• Devised and implemented strategies providing significant savings and income whilst providing improved forensic performance including expanding in-house services, income generation initiatives and forensic submissions policies
• Wrote successful business cases including proposals for setting up an East Midlands Drug Analysis Facility, Scientific Support Re-structure & capital purchases
• Led an Expert Network of Fingerprint Experts, Trainers, CAST, CPS, Forensic Regulator & suppliers in a scoping project investigating the application of likelihood ratios to Fingerprint Comparison
• Successfully managed complex employee relationships and diversity issues including competency and issues associated with change, re-structuring including redeployment and demotion, changes in reposnsibility, shift patterns, merging of units, career progression introduction, increase service portfolio, role changes etc.

Teaching, Training & Academic

Karen has a PgCE in Higher Education and was a Senior Lecturer & course Leader at the University of Teesside for all post graduate forensic related courses. She delivered teaching to undergraduate and post graduate students in Forensic Chemistry, Mark Recovery and Enhancement, Forensic Identification, Imaging and Forensic Management. She also designed and implemented 6 post graduate MSc Courses.

Karen is widely published in her field and has presented at a number of national and international conferences as seen in our publications section. She is a fully qualified L20 Assessor and is an exam marker for the AQA Examination Board. She is an Associate Lecturer for several universities, an external adviser, PhD Assessor, a peer reviewer of academic papers and has been a supervisor for a number of student research projects. Karen has been a member of the Skills for Justice Occupational Committee, the QAA Forensic Science Benchmarking Group and the UK Forensic Science Education Group.

Karen has also negotiated and implemented formal partnerships between businesses, Police Forces and universities to ensure performance improvement and contingency planning.

Quality and Performance

Karen is a qualified and experienced L20 Assessor as well as a a technical Assessor for ISO17025 and has researched and managed performance and quality for over 28 years. Karen was a member of the ACPO Performance & Standards Group, the Skills for Justice Fingerprint Laboratories NOS Board and the chair of Derbyshire Constabulary's Forensic Steering & Performance and ISO Management Meetings. Her achievements include; 

• Changed Police in-house laboratory service delivery approaches and performance through a UK Home Office funded research project, the recommendations from which were adopted by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO)
• Being the work-stream lead for Custody Forensic Sampling for the ACPO Forensic Science & Innovation Group
• Led the team that introduced the first fully operational Glove Mark Database within the UK

• Led the first team outside the Metropolitan Police Force to gain ISO17025 accreditation

• Led a team to obtain ISO9001 across a full police in-house forensic service range

• Led the Scientific Support team which topped the NPIA performance list for DNA and Fingerprint attrition for the years 2007 to 2010

• Reviewed & managed forensic supplier performance/service delivery for 5 Police Forces

• Implemented a Quality and Performance Unit with Derbyshire Scientific Support
• Introduced a life long learning and competency assessment regime including assessment against National Occupational Standards, Dip Checking, Proficiency testing, annual assessments and CPD
• Led an Expert Network to produce a Laboratory Technician role profile with Skills for Justice

• Led a 2 force project funded by the Forensic Regulator on CSI behaviours and characteristics

• Assisted a number of organisations with respect to the ISO17025 quality standard