Alex joined Sopra Steria’s Public Safety Group (PSG) as an account manager in April 2024. Prior to this Alex was a Chief Inspector within Derbyshire Constabulary.
Alex is a highly experienced policing leader, with a proven track record of driving business transformation and delivering impactful results. With over 17 years of experience in policing, Alex is known for his ability to implement strategic initiatives,
manage complex projects, and build productive partnerships that achieve organisational objectives.
Throughout his career, Alex has demonstrated exceptional skills in business change, programme delivery, and stakeholder management. Notably, he successfully managed a £4.4 million budget across nine local authority areas to implement Anti-Social
Behaviour (ASB) Immediate Justice and Hotspot policing projects within extremely tight timescales. He also led the development of a new neighbourhood policing strategy in Derbyshire, introducing innovative technologies to enhance performance,
oversight and management.
Alex’s previous experience and influence extends to national policing structures. During his time in Counter Terrorism policing, Alex successfully piloted changes that have redefined how Counter Terrorism Police and their partners manage
high-risk individuals. His efforts in establishing the first people strategy within CTP-East Midlands, also resulted in the highest Investors in People scores across the national CTP network.
Adept at managing risk and safeguarding, Alex has led multi-agency teams dedicated to preventing crime and protecting vulnerable individuals. He is also trained in Tactical Firearms Command and Critical Incident management. Alex describes his
approach as people-focused and purpose-driven. He combines ‘hands on’ direct experiences with a keen understanding of organisational dynamics.
Alex is keen to use this approach and his experience in helping the numerous Police accounts he currently manages and interacts with regularly.
Working as an account manager allows Alex to remain close to Policing and the challenges it faces.
Over the next 6 - 12 months, Alex predicts that Policing will have a heavy focus on Neighborhood Policing and Crime Prevention initiatives. “The new Labour Government has already indicated a desire to uplift Neighborhood Policing Teams and
continue the crackdown on ASB. I suspect the current challenges around Prison space will place additional emphasis on early intervention initiatives, multi-agency collaboration and out of court resolutions. The government will want to show
that they are serious about ‘reclaiming the streets’ so I expect hotspot policing work will continue, but with an added expectation on all police forces to build this into their business-as-usual plans for data driven and evidence
based preventative patrols.”
Get in touch with Alex
James Johnson
Account Manager
James is a husband and father living in Southampton with his wife and three children. He spends a lot of time visiting family in South Wales.
With a professional background in policing and private sector IT, James has served for 10 years across three different Police Forces. He began his policing career with Hampshire Constabulary as a Special Constable and Force Control Room operator.
He later worked as an officer for the Ministry of Defence Police at a UK site of Critical National Infrastructure, before returning to Hampshire's control room, where he progressed to the role of control room supervisor.
During this time, James took on core responsibilities of an ‘OSCAR2' (the national callsign for a Control Room Supervisor/Sergeant). His responsibilities included pursuit management and supporting the Force Incident Manager (FIM) in firearms deployments. He was also the direct line manager to a team of
10 multi-disciplinary colleagues. Additionally, he became closely involved in a transformative change project, working as a ‘Change Champion’ for the implementation of a new command and control system. It was through this project
that he developed a strong understanding of change management.
As a control room supervisor, James completed continuous professional development (CPD) in areas such as Mental Health Tactical Advising,
Domestic Abuse Championing, and
Digital Media Advising.
In 2020, shortly after the pandemic began, James took up a position in South Wales and continued his policing career with South Wales Police as a Public Service Centre (PSC) Supervisor. This role provided him with a unique insight into the differences between police forces, highlighting the varying challenges they face. His experience in this role has enabled him to empathise with the sector while helping police forces learn from best practices and remain aligned with the priorities of their Police and Crime Plans.
In March 2024, James joined Sopra Steria as an Account Manager. Since then, he has worked with and visited several police forces, further broadening his experience. One of the highlights of his job has been returning to control rooms and visiting customers. He has been on site for two of Sopra Steria’s PEEL AFI Support Packages, where he observed the technical consultants review and articulate the gap between how STORM is currently being used and how its functionality can be maximised by police forces.
The PEEL AFI Support Package has been well-received by customers, as it combines technical and functional assessments with observations on user behaviours. This holistic approach allows the creation of actionable recommendations that police forces can implement.
"I recognise the increasing challenge the public sector, particularly policing, faces in capturing, storing, and using data to make objective decisions. I predict that data strategies and projects aimed at improving data usage within police forces will rise in importance over the next six months, especially as forces explore the potential of large language models and predictive analytics on their data.”
Get in touch with James