Three 'capable' candidates for top job at West Midlands Police

Three “eminently appointable” people are vying to take on the top job at West Midlands Police.

West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster revealed they have received a trio of applications for the vacant job as permanent chief constable of the force.

The application process for the role ended on Friday (July 24) and bosses will now go through the formal shortlisting process later this week before moving to the next phase of recruitment.

Mr Foster said the three applicants were ‘eligible, capable, knowledgeable and eminently appointable’.

Acting Chief Constable Scott Green took on the interim role in January this year following the controversy over Israeli football fans being banned from attending a match in Birmingham.

The force came under fire when incorrect evidence garnered from Microsoft Copilot was used as part of a decision by Birmingham Safety Advisory Group to stop Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending a Europa League game against Aston Villa in November.

The fallout resulted in the retirement of former West Midlands Police chief constable Craig Guildford, who had admitted misleading MPs after previously denying the use of AI.

At a West Midlands Police and Crime Panel meeting on Monday (July 27), Mr Foster provided an update on the recruitment to members.

He said: “The application process closed on Friday and I’m pleased to say we have three candidates who have all submitted applications to become the next permanent chief constable of West Midlands Police.

“We will be meeting later this week to formally shortlist those candidates with a view to those shortlisted candidates going forward to the assessment process on 9 and 10 September.

“Plainly we do not want to pre-judge that shortlisting process. I can’t identify who those candidates are at the moment but they are three eligible, capable, knowledgeable and eminently appointable applications that we’ve had from three individuals.

“That is good news. We have an open and competitive and transparent process open to us.”

During the meeting, panel members questioned the fact there are only three applications with the risk of only one being on the final shortlist, meaning there would be no choice during the selection process.

But Mr Foster said, while he didn’t wish to pre-judge the process, there was “every possibility there will be three candidates on the shortlist”.