Cumbria Police want women and girls to tell them how safe they feel
The Police and Crime Commissioner says improvements have been made but it's still not enough
Cumbria's Police and Crime Commissioner says great progress has been made in how they deal with violence against women and girls, but admits it's still not enough.
The force has launched a survey to get feedback from women and girls on how safe they feel in their own homes, neighbourhoods and towns.
It also includes questions about their own experiences.
The aim is to use the information gained to improve the support that officers can offer.
Detective Superintendent Sally Blaiklock said:
"We believe we have made great progress in improving how we deal with these offences and issues.
"We have implemented a range of measures, operations and activities to make women and girls feel safer and to deter these crimes and tackle the perpetrators of these offences.
"The conviction rates achieved by our work with the CPS putting cases before the courts also shows how seriously we take these offences and the work that goes into cases.
"Cumbria is one of the safest places to live. However, these crimes do happen here.
"They can happen behind closed doors or in public places, online or in the real world.
"We have carried out a lot of work to address the issue of violence against women and girls and we believe this survey will be our latest tool to help our drive to constantly improve."
Examples of work done includes creating and filling a dedicated operational 'Violence Against Women and Girls' detective inspector post.
Peter McCall says it's an important campaign to re-emphasise how seriously they take this issue.
"It's really important that the police and we all stay in touch with the issues that actually affect women and girls.
"We might think we know where and how they feel unsafe, but it's very presumptuous of us to do that, so it's important to speak to the folk who are affected directly to get their feedback so that we can focus the resource and our tactics where they need to be.
"When we get cases to court, we have between 84% and 87% success rate at getting guilty verdicts or pleas.
"That's great, but it's still not enough.
"The challenge is getting folk to report and have the confidence to do it and for us to keep them with the process, to see it right through court.
"That's important because folk who do abuse others, in this case women, we have to send a message that it's not acceptable and it will be taken seriously by police.
"That's why this campaign is really important."
Any woman or girl who is affected by a crime can contact Cumbria Victim Support by calling 0300 303 0157 or using the online chat.