Women need actions not just words. Inquiries and reports must only be the starting point.
Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ) welcomes the publication of Part 1 of the Angiolini Inquiry. This is an important moment for the Everard family and we hope that the process has answered some of their questions and that they have support for what must be a very difficult time. It must be devastating to know that Wayne Couzens could and should have been stopped.
The key points arising CWJ wishes to highlight are:
Wayne Couzens should never have been a police officer.
Opportunities to prevent him from having the powers he used to commit this horrific crime were missed by three separate Forces: Kent Police, The Civil Nuclear Constabulary and the Metropolitan Police Service.
Several women have now come forward with credible allegations that they were victims of sexual assault by Couzens. That they did not come forward at the time should be a matter of shame to the police nationally, whose handling of such allegations creates a significant barrier to reporting.
Even where women did come forward to report his indecent exposure crimes, those allegations were not properly investigated. The treatment of such crimes as “low level” sexual misconduct fails to recognise that such behaviour escalates.
At least some other officers were aware of his extreme misogyny. They did not report him and it does not appear that they have been disciplined. Until this part of the code of conduct is enforced, it is hard to see how real change will be made.
The report has outlined what victims of police abuse and those who work with them already know: systems to ensure that abusive men are stopped from joining the police or rooted out once known of, are wholly inadequate. The issues which left Couzens free to commit his appalling crimes have long been highlighted to the Met and other Forces. That they are only now being looked at as a result of this tragic event, is unacceptable. It must not happen again.
This report should not be read in isolation. Baroness Casey’s Report into culture in the Met highlighted that this is a Force which is institutionally misogynistic, racist and homophobic. While the Met wastes time rejecting those labels, this deflection allows abusive officers to continue to abuse, while the Force engages in PR battles rather than focusing on creating real change. Until it re-considers its priorities, women will continue to be at risk.
CWJ recommends that a key priority must be to use powers which already exist to root out those who allow misconduct to go unchecked. The Police Code of Conduct provides a power to bring misconduct proceedings against officers who turn a blind eye to others’ misconduct. In our experience, this power is rarely used and if it were to become routine, it would send a clear signal to officers that their loyalty must be to the principle of policing, not to their badly behaved colleagues.
Violence against women and girls (VAWG) needs to be a genuine priority and the public needs to see real change. One issue that is clear from the report is that the police have been treating lower level VAWG without due seriousness. For example, the approach taken to investigating indecent exposure is far too lax, even though it is well documented that such crimes can lead to more serious offending. It is utterly tragic that this has happened here. All VAWG allegations need to be taken seriously.
Harriet Wistrich, Solicitor and Director of CWJ, said:
“The report must make devastating reading for the family of Sarah Everard who know now that her murderer could have been stopped many times before the ultimate horrific outcome. Its recommendations must of course be acted on not just by the Met police but by all forces across the country. In addition, as the work CWJ has undertaken on police perpetrated abuse makes clear, there need to be far more effective mechanisms for accountability not only of police perpetrators but of those who fail to report wrong doing and of managers who fail to stamp out misogynistic culture within policing units.”