Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ), who published a police super-complaint (with input from the Bureau of Investigative Journalists) in March 2020 laying bare the hidden scandal of police perpetrated domestic abuse (PPDA), responded today to the NPCC integrity screening project:
“Whilst we welcome the principle of undertaking this extensive review of police integrity, the figures simply do not stack up.” said CWJ Director, Harriet Wistrich
“The outcome that only a tiny number of police officers from across the country have been found to require further investigation does not accord with recent findings within the Met police alone as revealed in the Baroness Casey report and Operation Onyx. Neither does it accord with the evidence we have collected from women who have come forward to CWJ following our police super-complaint submitted in March 2020.
“The explanation for such a virtually clean bill of health must lie in the significant problems in the collection of data that the police themselves have identified.”
In a 2022 review of data quality relating to VAWG allegations against police, the College of Policing/NPCC said: “Data collected locally about police misconduct is not recorded in a detailed and consistent manner, making it more difficult to provide accurate and timely insight into police-perpetrated VAWG.”*
In a further report published in March 2023, the College of Policing/NPCC said: “It is almost certain that the poor and inconsistent collection, quality and management of data means that the true scale of risks, harms and opportunities for policing across all VAWG threats are not fully understood. It is almost certain that this presents a barrier to effective service delivery, design of crime prevention tactics and practice improvement. This judgment is expressed with high confidence.”**
Harriet Wistrich continued: “These earlier findings accord with the experiences that victims of PPDA report to CWJ, where they have been told that the incident they have reported is a “civil matter” and so doesn’t need to be recorded as a crime.
“They also accord with further research from the Bureau of Investigative Journalists, they did freedom of information requests for the number of non-molestation orders against officers on each force. They found that most forces said they didn’t hold that information. This is evidence of another significant data gap.
“If the information isn’t being recorded in the first place, then it isn’t going to show up in the data wash.”
* ‘Themes, learning and next steps following police forces’ reviews of police-perpetrated violence against women and girls’ - October 2022
** ‘Tackling violence against women girls - Police performance and insights publication’ - March 2023