Met Police to train officers to call out sexism and misogyny

"Let in your biggest critics": Speaking to ITV London's Duncan Golestani, women's rights campaigner Jamie Klingler claims the Met Police is still avoiding full accountability

The Metropolitan Police says it will train officers and staff to identify and call out sexism and misogyny as part of a new strategy to tackle violence against women and girls (VAWG).

Its 10-point plan, launched today, outlines a series of commitments aimed at building trust and confidence and making the capital safer.

However, a campaigner has criticised the force for using rape statistics from a decade ago to inform their strategy, adding that more should have already been done three years on from the murder of Sarah Everard by Met Police officer Wayne Couzens.

The 33-year-old's murder was one of a series of high-profile scandals that have rocked the force in recent years, including the case of David Carrick, who abused his power as a constable to abuse and rape multiple women over 17 years.

A review by Baroness Casey published in March also found the Met to be institutionally racist, misogynist and homophobic.

With plenty of reputational damage to address, the force aims to transform its own culture with a new training programme with a specific focus on sexism and misogyny.

All new and current officers and staff in the force will be trained to identify and call out such behaviours.

Among the promises in the Met's new 10-point plan are a commitment to “treat VAWG as a ‘whole Met response’, not just for those in dedicated roles”, and improving victim care through a new multi-agency victim hub.

Met Deputy Assistant Commissioner Helen Millichap said a comprehensive internal analysis in the new year would lead to “a really clear training design” on sexist and misogynistic guidelines.

Asked how some of the concerns raised in Baroness Casey’s review would be addressed, she said the plan would involve more investment to improve the caseloads officers in the Community Safety Unit – those dealing primarily with domestic abuse.

Ms Millichap added that the plan also identifies threatened violence and abuse towards women and girls online as an area that should be “really prioritised”.

A progress update on the plan will be published by the Met after six months, and Ms Millichap stressed this would serve as the key point in determining the plan’s impact.

She said: “Whereas I think previously the danger has sometimes been that more work is seen as the domain of public protection teams and the investigators, this is taking a much broader, holistic whole system look at it.

“The metrics and the ways that we’ll report success are actually quite complex and… some of it might be improved charge rate, some of it will be the existence of an external scrutiny panel, those sorts of things.

“But we’re being really careful to make sure that we can show where we started from and what difference we’ve made in each of the commitments.”

The Met Police's 10-point plan to tackle violence against women and girls

• Work to eliminate domestic abuse and sexual offences perpetrated by police;

• Improve how the Met listens to those impacted by Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG);

• Demonstrably prioritise VAWG by investing resources to improve capacity and capability;

• Tackle sexism and misogyny in the Met and transform the force's culture;

• Look outside the Met for ways to improve its response to VAWG;

• Do more to identify and tackle the most dangerous and prolific perpetrators of VAWG;

• Make better use of police powers to protect women and girls from offenders, such as civil orders and protection orders;

• Improve support and care for survivors of domestic abuse and other VAWG offences and insure a "consistent and compassionate" service across London;

• Identify high-risk and high-harm locations for VAWG and target resources to those areas;

• Focus on preventing VAWG through the Met's "Strongest Ever Neighbourhoods" programme, including prevention work in schools and with young people

Charges for rape and serious sexual offences have increased by 41% compared with last year while the number of stalking protection orders has doubled, the Met said.

Jamie Klingler, women’s rights campaigner for Reclaim These Streets, said: “It’s taken three years from the so-called watershed moment of Sarah’s murder to get a four-page report that uses reported rape statistics from 10 years ago to tell us that the ‘new’ Met will suddenly care about VAWG."

She added: "If they are still relying on data from 2013, vetting from 2013 and behavioural science from 2013 then the new Met isn’t any different than the old.”

Nequela Whittaker, 35, from Brixton, was a victim of child abuse when she was raped aged 11, and is now a youth and community development worker.

Reacting to the launch of the action plan, she said: “It’s nice that there is an agenda that is specifically for women and girls, and it’s nice that we are at the forefront with this now being a topic of discussion.

“Before, we were so far down on the margin in terms of what does representation look like, how we got support from the Metropolitan Police and what the outcomes were looking like, so it’s nice to have them now taking accountability for all the things that weren’t quite working beforehand.”

Ms Whittaker said the 10 commitments were a good starting point, but questioned whether each one would receive enough attention if all were worked on at once.

"If we’re looking at talking about 10 commitments over six months, for me, I don’t feel like each area is going to get the right light shined on it," she added.

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