by Mark Langabeer, Hastings and Rye Labour member
ITV recently aired a programme, Women and the Police – Inside Story, which gave a number of personal accounts of sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour by male officers, often of a more senior rank. It was a good illustration of how widespread misogynistic ideas are in the Force and what little the leadership do to combat it.
One woman detective who was interviewed, described how she joined the service on the graduate fast track scheme. She said that the training was good but when she started work in the Serious Sexual Offences Team, she became disillusioned by the conduct of other officers in the unit. She knew officers who would actively discourage women from making complaints of sexual assault and this helped to keep their case load down.
The programme reported that there are an estimated 128,000 rapes or attempted rapes annually. Of these only around 70,000 are reported to the Police and less than 1% lead to a conviction. Following the murder of Sarah Everard, there was an independent review of the Metropolitan Police, headed by Baroness Louise Casey, looking at the procedures dealing with complaints. She noted that there were an astonishing 18,000 complaints between 2013 and 2022. Few of those making complaints had a positive experience from the misconduct procedures.
Another woman officer, with 20 years, service, told the programme that she enjoyed her work, and working in the vulnerable children team meant gaining the confidence of abused children. She explained that this gave her a great sense of job satisfaction.
Final warnings are removed after a year and a half
But she also reported that she was groped by a male officer of higher rank, at a retirement function. Later, when she decided to make a formal complaint, it turned out that three other women officers had also made complaints. The male officer was only given a final warning, which after 18 months would be removed. His ability to do a job well was used as ‘mitigation’ at the disciplinary hearing.
According to Baroness Casey, it takes an average of 400 days before an investigation is completed. One victim said that she thought the police service is largely a ‘boys’ club’ and female staff are reluctant to report inappropriate behaviour, either out of loyalty or fear.
The programme interviewed a number of officers who all had similar experiences. They interviewed a former male officer of 16 years’ experience, who felt that the senior ranks were feathering their own nests and didn’t treat reports of rape seriously.
Recently, I listened to a representative of the Police Federation, who was saying that morale within the service was at a low point. He pointed out that industrial action is illegal for police officers and they are also denied collective bargaining rights over pay and conditions. In a truly democratic society they should have these rights and in my opinion, Labour should commit to full trade union rights for the police, prison service and the armed forces. But at the same time, the Police Federation should play a much more pro-active and vigorous role in combatting the widespread misogyny in the force, and not provide a cover for the ‘boys’ club’ attitude.
The programme, which is probably a good starting point for a discussion in a Labour Party branch, can be found here.
