Police chiefs have declared violence against women and girls a “national emergency,” prioritising it alongside terrorism.
Police said that they are calling for a new “whole-system approach” to deal with “epidemic levels.”
Epidemic Levels
Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth, deputy CEO of the College of Policing and NPCC lead for violence against women and girls, said that “violence against women and girls is a national emergency.”“We need the support and direction of government to intervene and address the current problems within the criminal justice system and lead the way on a whole-system approach to VAWG,” she said.
“We aspire to a position where an effective criminal justice response to VAWG is the last resort. We need to move forward as a society to make change and no longer accept VAWG as inevitable,” she added.
The report said that “The scale and nature of the VAWG threat requires a shift in the overall national approach; a move from acceptance of the inevitability of VAWG to a longer-term commitment to preventing it from happening in the first place.”
It added that this “requires a step beyond just having effective partnership working, early identification and support to victims, to a commitment to address the underlying misogyny that drives VAWG.”
It identified five critical threats to women and girls; rape and serious sexual offences, domestic abuse, stalking and harassment, child sexual abuse and exploitation, and online and tech-enabled VAWG.
It added that there has been an estimated 435 percent increase in child sexual abuse and exploitation offences between 2013 and 2022 (from just over 20,000 to nearly 107,000).
Ms. Blyth said the creation of a National Centre for Public Protection would support police forces with specialist knowledge and training for investigators and officers.
‘Smoke and Mirrors’
However, retired police officer and law and order campaigner Norman Brennan said that the real issue is the criminal justice system is broken and demoralised police are leaving the already barebones force.“‘National Emergency terrorism’ is a word salad to describe an action deemed serious for which very little actually is being done,” he told The Epoch Times.
He said that the framing of the situation as such was “smoke and mirrors and window dressing.”
“The public are not fooled, the victims are not fooled,” he said.
Mr. Brennan said that the force doesn’t have the police officers to deal with more crime as more are leaving than joining, and “they can barely cope already with everyday crime.”
“Did we not hear about a national emergency two or three years ago about knife crime? Has anything changed?” Mr. Brennan added.
He blamed the former Prime Minister Theresa May’s policy of reduction of the police force by 22,000 officers and its ongoing effects.
He also cited the recent case of freed rapist Louis Collins, who attacked eight women in four days.
While the report did not mention immigration, Mr. Brennan suggested that some sex crimes committed by immigrants could be a factor, stating that those close to policing have indicated the figures are “horrendous.”
He added, “I definitely believe mass immigration has added to the fear and safety of women in the streets of Britain.”
