SY Police Federation: A 'tiny minority' of police officers don't behave 'as they should'
Steve Kent from South Yorkshire's Police Federation has been speaking to us about new national figures which have been released today
More than 1,000 complaints were made against police officers and staff relating to their treatment of women in a six-month period, new figures show.
Data released by the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) on Tuesday showed 653 conduct cases, against 672 individuals, relating to violence against women and girls between October 2021 and March 2022.
There were also 524 complaints made by members of the public against 867 people in the same time period.
The complaints related to various allegations including sexual harassment, discreditable conduct while off duty and sexual assault.
Police leaders will release the statistics each year as 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.
The NPCC said the figures, for all police forces in England and Wales including the British Transport Police, equate to 0.7% of the total police workforce employed in March 2022.
Of the conduct cases, just under half (48%) related to discreditable conduct while off duty, around a fifth (19%) were allegations of sexual assault and 13% were accusations of sexual harassment.
Among the complaints from the public, 63% were accusations over use of force, 9% overbearing or harassing behaviour and 6% sexual assault.
Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth, NPCC co-ordinator for violence against women and girls, said: "Our publication today reinforces the urgency and importance of our current mission to lift the stones and root abusers and corrupt individuals out of policing alongside delivering the long term, sustainable improvements to standards, vetting and misconduct processes we have promised.
"A range of allegations are included such as use of force, sexual comments, overbearing behaviour and sexual assault and the numbers under investigation equate to 0.7% of the workforce.
"The vast majority of officers and staff are professional and committed but I know it is shocking to hear about any potential predators in policing and that this can further shake fragile trust.
"It's important to be clear: data released today is intended to be a critical baseline for assessing police performance over time. It presents a picture from over a year ago rather than today.
"Over the past 18 months, police chiefs have focused on identifying wrongdoing in police ranks, strengthening misconduct investigations and toughening sanctions.
"My expectation is that the impact of those changes will be evident when we publish our next assessment - with more women having the confidence to report concerns, more investigations underway, more cases closed and more sanctions and dismissals."
However, Steve Kent-who's the Chair of South Yorkshire Police Federation-thinks it's all a bit misleading:
"There is a rhetoric going around that there's a large amount of police officers who are carrying out this kind of behaviour, and that's not the case.
"We in the police, compared to colleagues I've spoken to in other public sector authorities, are very progressive in terms of how we deal with this.
"It's a bit unfair that this is targeted against policing, and it drives this cultural perception that policing is rotten, and that's not the case.
"It's totally not fair for the vast majority of police officers who are out there doing their job and don't take part in this kind of behaviour."