Britain’s new policing shame revealed: Accused of crimes against women – but still working
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Exclusive: Baroness Casey, who led the damning review into the Met Police in the wake of Sarah Everard’s murder, backed calls for officers to be suspended. Three-quarters of police officers and staff accused of violence against women are not suspended by their force despite the allegations against them, shocking new figures show.
![[Baroness Casey authored the review into Britain’s largest police force following Sarah Everard’s murder]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2023/03/28/21/6db939401f71a0f856dd256b15c7e38dY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjgwMTE5MDky-2.71473540.jpg)
In the Metropolitan Police, which was found to be institutionally misogynistic by a damning review this year in the wake of Sarah Everard’s murder by a Met officer, just 12 per cent of officers and staff are being suspended from duties after being accused of crimes such as sexual assault and domestic violence.
![[Everard was kidnapped, raped and murdered in the spring of 2021]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2022/10/03/02/4c4a376f8703d1a66f5e5297f70607f6Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjY0NjI4MTQ3-2.65638704.jpg)
Louise Casey, the author of the review, has been joined by campaigners and policing top brass in calling on the home secretary to change the rules urgently to make suspension mandatory while allegations are investigated. Baroness Casey told The Independent: “Officers accused of violence against women should be immediately suspended pending investigation. I think it protects them, and it protects the complainant.”.
![[Metropolitan Police officer David Carrick is one of the worst sex offenders in modern history]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2023/04/09/19/59eb6b0731528411a98952e0fe96724eY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjgxMTUxNTkw-2.70592133.jpg)
Former police chief Sue Fish, who was the first chief constable to record misogyny as a hate crime back in 2016, said such a move would “give victims confidence the process is being dealt with seriously”. Sign up to the Independent Women newsletter and you could win a copy of Pocket Guide to the Patriarchy.
The joint investigation by domestic abuse charity Refuge and The Independent reveals that just 24 per cent of police investigated for domestic abuse, sexual assault, rape and abuse of position were suspended across England and Wales between May 2022 and May 2023.
