BAPA history booklet

1995 – Matt Ward joined West Midlands Police in 1995. In 2016 he is the only
BME Chief Superintendent within the force. From an early age Matt knew he
wanted to be a police officer. Whilst studying Law at Cambridge University he
had the opportunity to undertake a six week work placement with West Midlands
Police which gave him the opportunity to shadow Response Officers in
Wolverhampton. This experience fuelled his interest in pursuing his childhood
dream.
His early policing career took him from Wolverhampton to Handsworth to
Birmingham City Centre where he undertook a range of operational roles
including Response, Neighbourhood Policing, CID, Custody and Operations
Centre. Matt also worked as the staff officer to former Chief Constable, Sir Paul
Scott-Lee, before joining the Force CID. He had the responsibility for investigating
murders and major crimes across the Black Country.
Matt later undertook the role of Operations Superintendent at
Birmingham West & Central local policing unit and specialised in
managing the night-time economy, policing protests and working
with partners to protect the city from terrorist attacks. From this
role he moved onto Force Intelligence where he led on the force’s
response to organised crime, threats to life and human trafficking.
Currently Matt is the LPU Commander of Sandwell, with over twenty
years’ service he has had a vast career and has enjoyed policing a
wide range of challenging operations and complex investigations.
As a founding member of WMBAPA, he remains committed to
making West Midlands Police more representative of the diverse
communities it serves by increasing the representation of black and
minority ethnic officers and staff at all levels.
Chief Superintendent Matt Ward
Winston Christie joined West Midlands Police in 1997. After hearing a number of
people complain about racism within the police following the Stephen Lawrence
enquiry and believing that the police needed to change – he decided the best way
to do that was to join up himself and effect change from within and in September
1995 he put in his application.
It wasn’t until January 1997 that he was sworn in and he recalls the first couple of
years being quite challenging until in 1998 a few more experienced officers saw
he was struggling and offered their support.
Once he had gotten past the initial hurdles and was signed off and confirmed as a
constable in November 1998, his success story began. He qualified as a detective
and passed his exams for sergeant quite early on and he was commended for
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