About the team

Photograph of the participants at Hack the Police 4, filling the room at the Computacenter Offices in London

Police Rewired

The first Hack the Police event was held in 2013, and run by officers from a group within the Metropolitan Police called the Commissioners 100.

Hack the Police 2 was an independently run hackathon, hosted by the London College of Political Technology, in partnership with the Goldsmiths Forensic Psychology Unit with assistance and input from Lewis Westbury.

Police Rewired was formed after this second hackathon by Lewis Westbury and Andreas Varotsis, with a number of loosely defined goals: Providing continuity for the hackathon events, supporting and advocating for volunteers working on projects in public safety, and building a community of likeminded people.

Since then the mission has grown, and Police Rewired now run an annual hackathon, and support a number of ongoing projects to develop new technologies for public safety.

In 2021, we welcome Dr Laura Knight, formerly Director of the Institute for Public Safety, Crime and Justice to the team.

The work we do

The projects we support are lead by members of our community, and the events we run create opportunities for our community to encounter and tackle real-life problems in public safety and policing, alongside professionals who work with those issues every day.

Our organisation

Police Rewired is managed in a not-for-profit fashion by Front-Line Tech Ltd, a company owned by Lewis Westbury. This makes it possible for us to invoice sponsors and organise events covered by the appropriate insurances.

Lewis Westbury

Director

Lewis Westbury is a senior developer with Government Digital Service, currently working on the Digital Identity programme.

Since 2009 he has spent time volunteering with the Metropolitan Police Special Constabulary. Lewis took a career break from that a few years ago to dedicate more time to developing Police Rewired and growing our community.

Lewis loves to play escape room games, and is a contributor to Escape the Review.

Andreas Varotsis

Associate Director

Andreas Varotsis is a Police Inspector with the Metropolitan Police, currently working in the Strategic Insight Unit, focusing on quantitative research and data-science applied to crime and policing priorities. He has previously worked a variety of operational roles throughout the MPS.

In his spare time, Andreas is a hobbyist programmer, and enjoys cheap sci-fi and homemade cheese.

Dr Laura Knight

Associate Director

Dr Laura Knight is a leading expert and consultant in public safety, policing, and volunteerism. She brings a wealth of experience from her time as Director of the Institute for Public Safety, Crime and Justice with her to Police Rewired.

In her spare time, Laura enjoys online escape rooms and puzzles.