How are we meant to trust anyone when we can’t even trust our police forces? A report released by Victim Support earlier this year found that 54% of women lack confidence that the police will properly investigate reports of domestic abuse, while a further 50% said the same about sexual assault reports. Who can blame them? Just this year alone four police officers have been convicted of targeting and having sexual relationships with domestic abuse victims, clearly taking advantage of their position of power, with the Met confirming in September 2023 that more than 1,000 of its officers are currently suspended or on restricted duties with another 450 also being investigated for historic allegations of sexual or domestic violence.
A 2023 survey from YouGov found that 44% of women don’t trust individual police officers, while 51% of women don’t trust London’s Met Police at all.
Perhaps it was Sarah Everard’s murder in March 2021 by serving Met Police officer Wayne Couzens that began this erosion of trust, yet police officers have proved time and time again over the ensuing two years that there are numerous offenders in their forces. Earlier this year, officer David Carrick was found guilty of raping 48 women across a 17-year span. In March, it was revealed that there had been complaints made against 1,500 active police officers in the UK in the six months between October 2021 to April 2022.
While new misconduct guidelines have been introduced in order to stop violence against women and girls - both the public and female members of the police force - until it stops, we will remain angry and document just how much the police have failed women and girls, below.
September 2023: Police officers found to be misusing body camsIn September 2023, the BBC released findings that there had been over 150 reports of body cam misuse within the police forces in England and Wales.
"Those incidents go to the heart of what undermines confidence in policing," said the National Police Chief Council's lead for body-worn video, Acting Chief Constable Jim Colwell.
In one of the most serious cases reported, siblings Louisa, 25, and Yufial, 23 spent two years in a long court battle after being accused of assaulting and abusing police officers during a Black Lives Matter protest in London in 2020. They attested that they had, in fact, been abused by officers. They spent two years fighting for the body cam footage of the incident to be released.
The footage, which has now been seen by the BBC shows that both sisters appear to be pushed and shoved by officers.
"[I kept thinking] I'm not going crazy, I know what happened, I saw the officer punch my brother," Louisa said.
Added her brother, “[Body cams are] labelled as protection for the public, but ultimately it protects the police.”
September 2023: 1,000 Metropolitan Police officers are currently suspended or on restricted duties, says new reportIn September 2023, the Met confirmed 201 of its officers are currently suspended, while 860 are on restricted duties. Some 450 are also being investigated for historic allegations of sexual or domestic violence, the force said. The Met are amidst a corruption scandal and following Wayne Carrick's conviction, attempting to root out rogue officers.
In horrifying new figures, the Met - Britain's largest force which employs 34,000 officers - also revealed that in the past year 100 officers have been sacked for gross misconduct - up by 66% on the normal rate and the 201 officers currently suspended represents a rise from 69 in September 2022. The stats have shown that 275 are awaiting a gross misconduct hearing, a significant proportion of which involved alleged violence against women and girls, compared to 136 last year. The number of reports from the public and officers of alleged misconduct has also doubled.
Speaking to reporters at New Scotland Yard, The Met's Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy said there were plans to hold around 30 misconduct hearings and 30 gross incompetence hearings each month, meaning that around 60 officers a month could face the sack. "This is going to take one, two or more years to root out those who are corrupt," he said.
September 2023: Met officer appears in court charged with raping woman at knifepointA serving Metropolitan Police officer appeared in court after allegedly raping a woman at knifepoint before forcing her into his car. Pc Cliff Mitchell, 23, did not give an indication of plea at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday 7 September to six counts of rape, one count of making threats to kill and one count of breaching a non-molestation order.
July 2023: A former police detective has been found guilty of raping a 12-year-old child.In July 2023, paedophile Stephen Hardy, 46, was found guilty of rape, sexual assault and causing a child to engage in sexual activity between December 2012 and June 2020. Hardy has the denied 20 charges of sexual abuse, Liverpool Crown Court heard and will be sentenced in September.
Jo Palmiero, senior crown prosecutor for CPS North West's rape and serious sexual abuse unit, said Hardy was in a position of trust, and manipulated his victim.
She said: “Stephen Hardy gained the trust of the child before subjecting them to sickening sexual abuse, with no thought for the lasting damage his abuse would cause. Hardy was a police officer, in a position of trust, who manipulated and controlled his victim.”
July 2023: Black mother wrongly accused of dodging bus fare handcuffed in front of distressed childOn 21 July, a Black mother was arrested and detained by two Metropolitan Police officers in front of her distressed child after she was falsely accused of not paying her bus fare.
Disturbing footage circulated on social media showing the young boy crying while separated from his mother as she shouted: “What the hell, get off me, what are you doing? What the f*** is going on?”, sparking outrage online.
The police said in a statement that the woman was asked to provide her ticket but failed to do so, and was arrested on suspicion of fare evasion and handcuffed. The woman was later de-arrested when it was confirmed that she had, in fact, paid for her ticket.
The incident was referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) and concluded that “the officers’ actions did not identify any conduct matters” but said officials would reflect on the incident to “urgently identify any opportunities to do things differently.”
Det Ch Supt Christina Jessah said: “We know that this is a distressing video to watch, even more so as a child is seen to be visibly upset by the way in which his mother has been apprehended. We regret the upset that has been caused to the child.
“A PCSO [police community support officer] can be seen comforting the child; however, we know that this does not take away from the impact that this will have on him. We are seeking to make contact with the female in question to understand the wider circumstances."
July 2023: Woman left naked in jail cell for 16 hours after strip searchIn July 2023, a woman claimed that she was strip searched by police in Birmingham last year and left completely naked in a cell for 16 hours without anti-rip garments.
“It just felt like they could violate me, and they're allowed to do it,” she told Sky News. “They only left the blue mat in the room, that's the only thing. So, to try and cover my modesty... I just felt totally violated.”
West Midlands Police said that no offences were committed by officers. The police claimed that “she was given blankets and water, but custody staff were unable to provide her with food and replacement clothing initially due to her aggressive behaviour and risk to cause herself harm”. The woman disputes that she was too aggressive to give clothes to, and asked the police for further footage to be provided of the period she was left naked in the cell.
Her treatment came after another woman claimed she was drugged and sexually assaulted by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) officers. She was kept for 40 hours in police custody but says there are three hours of missing footage. Her medical records show evidence of sexual injuries.
GMP has said there is no evidence to suggest there has been misconduct by its officers or that a criminal offence has occurred.
PC Anthony Ritchie and former PC Steven Walters of West Midlands Police were found guilty of having sex with domestic abuse victims while on duty. Ritchie had sex with one woman after arresting her partner, and began a sexual relationship with another after arresting her son. Walters got two women to perform oral sex on him during separate domestic abuse-related callouts. The actions of Ritchie and Walters were described as “predatory” during the trial for misconduct in a public office.
March 2023: 1,500 police officers accused of violence against womenMore than 1,500 British police officers were accused of violent offences against women and girls in the six months between October 2021 and April 2022, data from the National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC) found.
Over half of the cases (55%) were conduct matters which is usually reported by a colleague n the force, while 45% were complaints from the public. These included sexual harassment and assault and police-perpetrated violence. The NPCC found that less than 1% of these officers had been fired. This is despite new misconduct guidelines introduced in 2022 that said police officers who are violent towards women and girls would be sacked.
February 2023: Police officers jailed after targeting domestic abuse victims for sexLancashire Police officer Darren Coathup was sentenced to two years in prison in February 2023 after admitting he was targeting women who had reported domestic abuse for “his own sexual purposes”. One of the two victims said Coathup attended her home in April 2021 after she reported domestic abuse, and later sent her “flirtatious and sexualised” messages and they later had sex. Detective Inspector Eugene Swift later said Coathup "deliberately targeted vulnerable crime victims for his own sexual purposes". He pleaded guilty to two counts of being a holder of a public office who wilfully neglected to perform his duty.
Coathup’s sentencing came just one month after West Mercia Police officer Rhett Wilson was charged with the same offence. Wilson targeted three domestic abuse victims for sex and was sentenced to 34 months in jail. One of his victims later said: “I feel I cannot trust the police anymore to help me. I don’t feel I can call them out because they might be friends of him. I did not feel anyone would believe me because he was a policeman.”
Cambridgeshire Police officer Michael Latimer was also barred from the police in October 2022 after he sent sexualised messages to domestic violence victims. No criminal conviction was brought.
February 2023: Met Police officer David Carrick charged with 48 rapesProof that there is absolutely more than one absolutely rotten egg in our police forces, in February 2023 David Carrick plead guilty to 85 serious offences including 48 rapes across a 17-year span. He was brought to justice in October 2021 after a victim reported his attack on her, and then countless other victims came forward with many claiming they were too scared to report him. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
In 2020, a black schoolgirl was strip searched by Met Police officers without an adult present after being wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis. The student, known as Child Q, was strip searched by two female officers and forced to take off her clothes and sanitary towels. A safeguarding report concluded the search was unjustified and that racism was ‘likely’ to have been a factor.
Scotland Yard said the officers' actions were ‘regrettable’ and that the incident ‘should never have happened’.
In August 2022, it was revealed that the IOPC was investigating two more complaints about the Met strip-searching children, this time regarding two 16-year-old boys who were searched in police stations in Ilford and Bethnal Green. The IOPC has also issued a "learning recommendation" to the Met. The force said it "welcomes" the advice.
January 2022: Kate Wilson awarded compensation after police officer breached her human rightsIn January of 2022, Kate Wilson was awarded £230,000 in compensation after a tribunal found that the Met Police breached her human rights in five different ways.
Kate had been deceived into a sexual relationship by undercover officer Mark Kennedy while he was posing as an environmental campaigner. It later emerged he was married and had relationships with 10 other women during his time undercover.
Kate brought and won legal action against the force for breaches of her right to freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment, her right to privacy and right to freedom of expression.
December 2021: Police officers jailed for sharing pictures of murdered sistersWhen sisters Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46, were murdered in a park in south London in June 2020, two Me police officers took and shared photos of the sister’s bodies “for their own amusement”. The Old Bailey in London heard that they shared the images in two WhatsApp groups, calling the victims “dead birds”. Officers Deniz Jaffer and Jamie Lewis were each jailed for two years and nine months for misconduct in a public office.
March 2021: Sarah Everard’s murderSarah Everard’s name will be forever etched in the memory of every woman in London and across the country who experienced the horror of her disappearance in March 2021. The 33-year-old was abducted, raped, and murdered by serving police officer, Wayne Couzens who was later revealed to have faked her arrest to get her in the back of his police car.
Sarah’s murder posed a question for all women: if we couldn’t trust the police, then who could we trust? In the wake of Sarah’s murder, the Metropolitan Police told women to “wave down a bus” if they were arrested by a lone male officer - a complete joke, which the police later admitted was a mistake to suggest.
An inquiry by MPs later found that police had “breached fundamental rights” at a vigil for Sarah that was held shortly after she was murdered, as the peaceful protest ended in physical clashes.
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