Norfolk domestic abuse charity welcomes plans to tackle violence against women

The police plan involves a new website, more funding for CCTV and street-lights along with strict instructions for plain clothed officers.

Author: Tom ClabonPublished 12th Oct 2021

Norfolk Police's plan to tackle violence against women is "a positive step forwards".

That's according to Rhys Lloyd from the Norwich-based domestic abuse charity, Leeway.

He told us that the service's new website, Street Safe, which allows people to anonymously flag areas where they feel unsafe, will help to rebuild trust.

"I think it will go a fair way to give women confidence that the police are doing all they can to make them feel at ease. I think its important that they feel that they can still go about their daily lives with hopefully, a minimal amount of intrusion"

He also told us the service getting £400,000 worth of CCTV cameras and street lights fitted in Kings Lynn and Great Yarmouth, will also make a real difference.

"This is a very positive step moving forwards. Things that seem so minor, like more street lights and CCTV will help give much greater confidence".

He went on to say that plain clothed officers now being under strict instructions to provide evidence for stopping people, will reduce suspicion and concern.

"Hopefully that will give confidence that the police are just doing their job and that they are looking out for people. Ultimately, the vast majority of officers are there to help people.

"While there are the likes Wayne Couzens out there, who used his position to his advantage. At the end of the day, we've got to put our trust in the vast majority of Police officers".

He concluded by saying that the proposed Triple 8 phone service, that would allow GPS to track a person whereabouts once triggered, could help give women the confidence to go about their business as normal.

"Its great that this sort of campaign is giving confidence to women, to still be able to go out. From the Sarah Everard case, we had a lot of women come forwards locally saying that they didn't feel safe.

"For some people that might mean they don't got out at night, to see their friends or even go to the pub.

"It's always good to have a big company behind something like this. Naturally people have heard of them BT and think, okay this is good and I can trust this.

"The next step from that is to raise awareness, to let people know what it does and how they can use to it help themselves and help others."

Hear all the latest news from across the UK on the hour, every hour, on Greatest Hits Radio on DAB, at greatesthitsradio.co.uk, and on the Greatest Hits Radio app.