Women police officers in UK caught in a web of systemic sexual abuse, professional discrimination and gender bias
Many women have experienced physical, mental and professional abuse at the hands of their assailant and none of these abusers have been disciplined
Image used for representational purpose. AFP
London: A week after serial rapist David Carrick was convicted for misusing his powers to sexually abuse his female colleagues for over two decades, dozens of women police officers have come out to speak against ‘systemic’ mistreatment in the police force.
Many such women have experienced physical, mental and professional abuse at the hands of their assailant and none of these abusers have been disciplined, they claim.
Reporting cases of their abuse also leads to the termination of their service at the force.
A female police officer told The Guardian that after she reported her husband, who is also in the force, emotional and financial abuse, she was forced to resign from her job.
Conditions enabling David Carrick ‘systemic’
Police reports and campaigners suggest that conditions that enabled David Carrick to commit rape 48 times over two decades are “systemic” in England and Wales.
The reports also point out the fact that the actual number of such cases is believed to be in the thousands.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said that after 9 January, it has received over 15 referrals from England and Wales, most of which refer to sexual assault. The watchdog currently has 20 active investigations over the use of misogynistic language, sexual harassment and coercive behaviour.
Calls for an end to ‘coercive canteen culture’
Nick Herbert, a former policing minister said that forces need to focus on “leadership development”.
“There has been a corrosive canteen culture, inadequate standards of professionalism, and inadequate supervision and leadership. We have to get beyond the point where senior officers are suggesting it’s a few bad apples. It is not. There is a wider cultural problem and it has to be addressed. Chief officers should have been paying more attention to it as well as police and crime commissioners,” said Herbert.
Nearly 200 female officers have contacted the Centre for Women’s Justice over alleged police domestic abuse from across England and Wales.
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