More than 1,000 complaints against police in six months over treatment of women and girls

Data from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) shows that during the period October 1, 2021, and March 31, 2022, 653 conduct cases against 672 individuals were flagged as relating to violence against women and girls (VAWG) by police forces in England and Wales as well as British Transport Police.

In the same period, 524 public complaint cases against 867 individuals were recorded.

In total this equates to 0.7 per cent of the police workforce employed in March 2022, said the NPCC.

Complaint and conduct cases are categorised against a range of definitions from the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC), which includes sexual harassment (defined as unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature, including sexual comments, propositions, leering and sexual posts on social media), discreditable conduct (defined as behaviours that occur while not in the execution of their duty) and sexual assault.

Almost two-thirds of the public complaints were categorised as use of force (63 per cent). In these cases, women will have complained about the use of force in handcuffing or arrest for example.  Next most common was overbearing or harassing behaviour at nine per cent. Sexual assault complaints made up six per cent of the total.

The most common causes for conduct cases were discreditable conduct (48 per cent), sexual assault (19 per cent) and sexual harassment (13 per cent).

This first benchmark of police performance on tackling VAWG follows a committment made in December 2021 by the NPCC and College of Policing to make it a priority for all police forces in England and Wales.

Subsequent national assessments will be published annually.

A key area of focus in the national framework is responding unequivocally to allegations of police-perpetrated abuse and addressing sexism and misogyny within policing.

Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth, NPCC coordinator for VAWG, said: “Our publication today reinforces the urgency and importance of our current mission to lift the stones and root abusers and corrupt individuals out of policing alongside delivering the long term, sustainable improvements to standards, vetting and misconduct processes we have promised.

“A range of allegations are included such as use of force, sexual comments, overbearing behaviour and sexual assault and the numbers under investigation equate to 0.7 per cent of the workforce.

“The vast majority of officers and staff are professional and committed but I know it is shocking to hear about any potential predators in policing and that this can further shake fragile trust.

“It’s important to be clear, data released today is intended to be a critical baseline for assessing police performance over time. It presents a picture from over a year ago rather than today.

“Over the past 18 months, police chiefs have focused on identifying wrongdoing in police ranks, strengthening misconduct investigations and toughening sanctions. My expectation is that the impact of those changes will be evident when we publish our next assessment – with more women having the confidence to report concerns, more investigations underway, more cases closed and more sanctions and dismissals.”

Another key element of the assessment is on VAWG crimes and their police and criminal justice response.

It shows, between October 2021 and March 2022, over 507,827 VAWG crimes were recorded, amounting to 16 per cent of all crime over that period. Of those, 61 per cent of investigations were finalised without a criminal justice outcome.

Responding to figures, Ms Blyth said: “Our performance data reinforces what we already know – too many cases are closed because of evidential difficulties and victims withdrawing, and too few victims are receiving timely justice.

“We need to extend the learning from Operation Soteria Bluestone to all forms of violence against women so investigations are focused consistently on the behaviour of suspects and victims receive the service set out in the Victims’ Code.  This will see us bring more violent perpetrators to justice.

“This is a long-term mission for policing.  I know we will only rebuild trust when the public and our staff see results and feel the impact of our actions.”

In the past 18 months, every force has put in place a VAWG action plan, in line with the national VAWG framework, that has seen them strengthen reporting routes and review allegations of sexual misconduct or domestic abuse against officers.

This is supplemented by a nationally coordinated process to check all police officers and staff against the Police National Database (PND) to identify any intelligence or allegations by September 2023 that need further investigation and to build the capability to automate checks of intelligence on a continuous basis.

All police forces are addressing failings in systems, processes and decision-making identified by is Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services in its review on vetting and misconduct; issues uncovered in a super-complaint about police perpetrated domestic abuse.

Following recommendations from an NPCC and College of Policing learning review published in October 2022, police forces are ensuring professional standards departments have a good working knowledge of current criminal investigation practice and access to expertise from rape and sexual assault investigators.

They are also acting to ensure criminal and misconduct investigations run in parallel and there is effective joint working when misconduct and criminal investigations are being conducted by different teams.

The NPCC said forces are following guidlines from the College of Policing updated in August 2022, which strengthens the guidance to misconduct decision-makers on removing those who betray police values and treating any misconduct related to VAWG or discrimination with the utmost severity.

The NPCC has called on all chief constables to take every possible step to root out those who do not uphold its standards including:

• Chairing accelerated hearings wherever the grounds are met (Recent Home Office data showed that in 95 per cent of these hearings, the officer was sacked by their chief constable, or would have been if they were still serving when the hearing happened);
• Making submissions to the chairs of those independent panels, wherever appropriate, so that sanctions always meet the gravity of an offence; and
• Seeking judicial review of decisions where appropriate.

Nicole Jacobs, Domestic Abuse Commissioner, said: “Victims and survivors need to see that robust action is being taken by the police as confidence remains at an all-time low and I welcome this report by the NPCC.

“It shows that forces are taking steps in the right direction to tackle perpetrators within the police as well as addressing sexism and misogyny within policing. There is still a long way to go.”

Farah Nazeer, chief executive of Women’s Aid, said:  “These statistics have deeply worrying implications for women’s already low levels of trust in the criminal justice system. We are calling for the full implementation of the inspectorate’s recommendations on vetting, misconduct and misogyny in policing.

“Forces must also commit to the Centre for Women’s Justice recommendation that all criminal investigations into police perpetrators are carried out by an external police force.

“This data shows the staggering scale of violence against women and girls, and how far we are from ensuring women and children truly are safe: just six per cent of more than half a million cases were closed with a suspect charged.

“These figures are completely unacceptable, but we understand that they are from a year ago and we are working closely with DCC Maggie Blyth to help improve them.

“While the NPCC’s commitment to drive forward progress is a step in the right direction, the government must also increase its oversight of the holistic criminal justice response to survivors to hold police forces, police and crime commissioners, the Crown Prosecution Service and courts as well as probation to account. We look forward to working with Maggie Blyth and others to bring about the desperately needed transformation.”

Sara Kirkpatrick, chief executive officer of Welsh Women’s Aid, added: “The monitoring of data in relation to how police forces across Wales respond to violence against women and girls is crucial in allowing us to scrutinise how this issue is being prioritised. Today’s data reinforces the need for root and branch reform within all police forces.

“We welcome today’s announcement, and ongoing commitment to monitoring and accountability, at a time when confidence in the police is at an all-time low. Police forces must be stringent in their checks and misconduct investigations if they are to rebuild trust. We are disappointed that this data shows that only six per cent of violence against women and girls related crimes currently result in a suspect being charged.

“There is a duty on police forces to make it clear that no one exists above the law, especially not those whose sole purpose is to enforce that law, and to keep all citizens safe from violence, abuse and oppression.”

Harriet Wistrich, director of the Centre for Women’s Justice, said: “I hope the greater understanding generated by this report and others recently published, will ultimately result in radical reform so that policing can be an effective means of tackling VAWG rather than representing a serious part of the problem”.