In response to policing reforms introduced at in the present day’s Nationwide Police Chiefs’ Council and Affiliation of Police and Crime Commissioners convention, Abigail Ampofo, interim CEO of Refuge, stated:
“Refuge welcomes the House Secretary’s plans to revive confidence in police forces by a significant overhaul, which is lengthy overdue. We all know firsthand that police have been failing survivors and victims of home abuse and male violence in opposition to ladies and ladies (VAWG) for much too lengthy.
Regardless of VAWG being named as a strategic policing precedence, ladies’s confidence within the justice system is at present at a disaster level and we proceed to see stunning ranges of abuse perpetrated by cops themselves.
It’s important that the police’s dealing with of VAWG is scrutinised, however this alone isn’t sufficient. Any powers the brand new Police Efficiency Unit has to sort out failing forces have to be efficient, robustly applied, and centered on enhancing outcomes for many who have skilled VAWG. With none measures to introduce accountability and alter outcomes for survivors, monitoring is meaningless.
The protection of ladies and ladies have to be positioned on the coronary heart of policing, and we’ll proceed to name for funding to go in the direction of obligatory and high quality employees coaching on home abuse and VAWG. Many survivors are too fearful to report these crimes to the police, and all too usually those who do are failed by the system supposed to guard them. The 2023 Casey Report illustrated how misogyny is culturally ingrained inside policing, however this nonetheless hasn’t been correctly acknowledged, not to mention modified.
Following on from Refuge’s ‘Take away the Rot’ marketing campaign, which uncovered the stunning magnitude of police forces’ failure to sort out misogyny and police-perpetrated VAWG, Labour dedicated to the suspension of all officers accused of home abuse or sexual offences pending an investigation. The federal government should make good on this manifesto pledge as a matter of urgency, and we keenly await additional particulars of plans to enhance police vetting, which is integral to rooting out police perpetrators, defending survivors, and restoring police confidence within the justice system as an entire.”
