Refuge responds to policing reforms announcement
In response to policing reforms announced at today’s National Police Chiefs’ Council and Association of Police and Crime Commissioners conference, Abigail Ampofo, interim CEO of Refuge, said:
“Refuge welcomes the Home Secretary’s plans to restore confidence in police forces through a major overhaul, which is long overdue. We know firsthand that police have been failing survivors and victims of domestic abuse and male violence against women and girls (VAWG) for far too long.
Despite VAWG being named as a strategic policing priority, women’s confidence in the justice system is currently at a crisis point and we continue to see shocking levels of abuse perpetrated by police officers themselves.
It is essential that the police’s handling of VAWG is scrutinised, but this alone isn’t enough. Any powers the new Police Performance Unit has to tackle failing forces must be effective, robustly implemented, and focused on improving outcomes for those who have experienced VAWG. Without any measures to introduce accountability and change outcomes for survivors, monitoring is meaningless.
The safety of women and girls must be placed at the heart of policing, and we will continue to call for funding to go towards mandatory and quality staff training on domestic abuse and VAWG. Many survivors are too fearful to report these crimes to the police, and all too often those that do are failed by the system supposed to protect them. The 2023 Casey Report illustrated how misogyny is culturally ingrained within policing, but this still hasn’t been properly acknowledged, let alone changed.
Following on from Refuge’s ‘Remove the Rot’ campaign, which exposed the shocking magnitude of police forces’ failure to tackle misogyny and police-perpetrated VAWG, Labour committed to the suspension of all officers accused of domestic abuse or sexual offences pending an investigation. The government must make good on this manifesto pledge as a matter of urgency, and we keenly await further details of plans to improve police vetting, which is integral to rooting out police perpetrators, protecting survivors, and restoring police confidence in the justice system as a whole.”