The culture amongst Norfolk police officers must change as part of efforts to restore the public’s trust, Norfolk’s police and crime commissioner has said.
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Giles Orpen-Smellie said concerns about the way police approach investigations into violence against women and girls meant more needed to happen in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard.
The complexity of investigation into rape and serious sexual assaults, with conviction rates as low as two per cent, meanest the force needs to simplify procedures and find where things were going wrong, he added.
“There are all sorts of frustrations amongst the constabulary about investigations being initiated that don’t go anywhere and there are questions to be asked and answered about that,” he said.
“But there are the deeper issues that arise from the Sarah Everard case because there are issues of public trust.
“Behind that there are a whole load of issues about attitudes and there is an on-going case about the Wayne Couzens WhatsApp group that involves a Norfolk officer.
“Other Norfolk officers have been through the courts recently for other sexual offences, indecent images and so on.”
Mr Orpen-Smellie said he planned to press Norfolk chief constable Paul Sanford after receiving a huge postbag of concerns about issues surrounding the safety and protection of women and girls.
“The police are not perfect but their heart is in the right place and as an institution they want to get it right,” he said.
“More than 50pc of the Norfolk force are now female and this is changing the culture. Even among the male officers they don’t like some of the laddish behaviour that might have been accepted 10 years ago.
“But in the light of the conviction of Wayne Couzens I have a long, very constructive conversation with the temporary chief constable about what needs doing.
“I am encouraged but I will be holding him to account in public at the next police and crime commissioner’s committee meeting.”
Mr Orpen-Smellie said changes in policing needed to be matched by a sea change in the way men see women in everyday lives.
“It behaviour leant by children from parents, it is behaviour learnt by everyone from television, films, books and I think pornography has a part to play in this,” he said.
“If we are going to solve this problem it is by changing society’s attitudes.”
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