Lancashire Police 'committed to safeguarding women from harm'

A fraction of police officers in England and Wales who face such complaints across the country are sacked.

Author: Harry Booth/Margaret Davis, PA Crime CorrespondentPublished 14th Mar 2023

Lancashire Police has vowed to 'root abusers and corrupt individuals' out of the force.

It's after new data from the National Police Chiefs Council shows less than 1% of more than 1500 police officers in England and Wales who faced complaints about their treatment of women were sacked in a six-month period.

653 conduct cases relating to violence against women and girls were brought against 672 individuals by police forces between October 2021 and March 2022.

524 complaints were also made by members of the public against 867 officers and staff.

Of the conduct cases, 167 have been resolved and 13 officers and staff have been sacked.

In the same time-frame, there were 12 cases involving officers and staff from Lancashire Police.

Two of them led to dismissal for gross misconduct, two were about an officer who has since resigned, but who is still being investigated.

Two were closed with no further action and four are still being investigated - those officers are on 'restricted duties'.

Lancashire Police said:

"We will continue to lift the stones and root abusers and corrupt individuals out of the organisation, alongside delivering the long term, sustainable improvements to standards, vetting and misconduct processes.

"We are committed to protecting and safeguarding women and girls from harm and where it is clearly demonstrated a criminal offence has taken place, we will work robustly with the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute the offenders.

"All our officers and staff are given training in what constitutes Abuse of Position for Sexual Purpose and sexual misconduct, so they fully understand what constitutes an inappropriate relationship."

Police leaders have asked the Home Office to toughen up existing regulations, including barring anyone convicted or cautioned for this type of offence from policing, and re-vetting anyone accused of these types of crimes.

They are also encouraging chief constables to use accelerated misconduct hearings to speed up disciplinary processes.

A national threat assessment of the scale of violence against women and girls will be made next month.

The moves are part of efforts to tackle misogyny in policing after scandals including the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer and Pc David Carrick being unmasked as a prolific sex offender.

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