Rotherham MP Sarah Champion: SYP 'must keep working' to build trust in the town
She's been speaking to us following the publication of Operation Linden yesterday by the IOPC
A Rotherham MP is calling on South Yorkshire Police to focus on building 'more trust' across local communities there.
Sarah Champion's been speaking to us following yesterday's report by the Police watchdog into historical child sexual exploitation in the town.
She says lessons must be learned from what went off in the town between 1997 & 2013:
"What we need to see is that no other area makes the same mistakes as what happened in Rotherham.
"Every CSE survivor I've ever spoken to wants to make sure that no other child goes through what they did.
"Hopefully, this report can be the blueprint for that, but a lot of work still needs to be done.
"South Yorkshire Police must be more transparent in order for a sense of trust to be built with people in the town moving forwards."
However, Deputy Chief Constable Tim Forber from South Yorkshire Police tells us relations have improved in recent years:
"We have listened to victims and survivors.
"Many of these people wouldn't speak to us as an organisation at one point.
"There's been a lot of work done to listen to victims and survivors about their experiences.
"That's been at the heart of the improvements that's led to the much-improved service we have in Rotherham today."