Hardly a day passes without another report highlighting violence against women. It’s a symptom of a toxic culture that allows far too many serious crimes to go unpunished, including thousands of rapes. Yet hundreds of police officers – the very people we are supposed to turn to for protection – have themselves been accused of abusing women.
The stock police response to such accusations is that there will always be a few bad apples in the ranks. It was the excuse reached for last week by the Metropolitan police commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick, when she talked lamely about the occasional “bad ’un” in her force. It is unedifying to see the country’s most senior officer trivialising legitimate concerns in this way, but especially so on the day that one of her own officers pleaded guilty to the kidnap and rape of Sarah Everard.
There is no doubt that the disappearance of this young woman in south London in March has brought women’s fears into sharp focus. PC Wayne Couzens has yet to enter a plea to a charge of murder and there are legal restrictions on what can be said about this and other ongoing cases, such as the killings of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman. High levels of sexual harassment at school, in the workplace and in public places mean that women are angry about the precautions we all have to take, while doubting the capacity of a manifestly failing criminal justice system to deal with perpetrators.
But we can’t have a sensible discussion about male violence without acknowledging the existence of a profoundly misogynist culture in some police forces – and a failure to act swiftly and impartially when serving officers are accused. The Centre for Women’s Justice has brought a “super-complaint” involving 15 forces, raising serious concerns about the way they handle accusations of domestic abuse, rape and stalking against serving officers.
Its submission alleges that women face difficulties in reporting abusive partners, that accused officers use their status and friendships to impede investigations, and that poor charging decisions are made in relation to serving officers. “At the heart of the concerns is lack of integrity, of officers manipulating the system and acting in bad faith in a variety of ways,” it alleges.
Almost 600 complaints of sexual misconduct were made against Metropolitan police employees between 2012 and 2018, according to documents obtained by the Observer, but only 119 were upheld. A Met officer who was accused in 2017 of raping two female colleagues was allowed to continue working for three years, even though both women were awarded compensation by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority; the Met did not start proceedings for gross misconduct until February this year. An officer in the Dorset force who strangled his lover in a car went on being paid for two months after he admitted manslaughter at a court hearing; PC Timothy Brehmer was described in court as a “womaniser” who used coercive control techniques to groom women, including a fellow officer.
In April this year, a Met officer faced a disciplinary hearing after hitting a vulnerable teenage girl with his baton “at least 30 times”, according to the Independent Office for Police Conduct. The girl, who has learning disabilities, approached PC Benjamin Kemp for help after she had run off from her group during an escorted walk in Newham. Kemp was dismissed from the force and the girl’s family has called on prosecutors to review a decision not to charge him with assault.
Last week it emerged that an officer in the Hampshire force had been found guilty of gross misconduct after threatening a female colleague’s face with scissors at a police station in Portsmouth. PC Simon Hawxwell also put his arm around the woman’s throat and asked her if she liked being “choked”. In a revealing aside, a disciplinary panel described his behaviour as an attempt at “dark sexual humour”, a comment that will prompt a weary sigh among women. Six officers from the same force, based at an organised crime unit in Basingstoke, were found guilty in December last year of gross misconduct after being recorded making sexist, racist and homophobic comments.
The “bad apples” theory falls apart in the face of this catalogue of appalling behaviour. Senior officers are reluctant to acknowledge that they have a systemic problem, yet it is clear that some predatory men are drawn to jobs that allow them to exploit their authority and status.
The harsh fact is there are not sufficient safeguards in place to identify and discipline police officers who abuse women, yet we are expected to trust the very same men to investigate crimes against the most vulnerable female victims. If women in this country are ever to feel safe – and it is something that should be ours by right – we urgently need a public inquiry into institutional misogyny within the police.
Joan Smith is a journalist and co-chair of the mayor of London’s Violence Against Women and Girls Board