Florence I don't know where you live but things in London with the police,
I haven't seen a foot patrol apart from eg armed in town after the London bridge attack, or in areas where there might be trouble etc for years. I'm in a London borough and I've not seen police generally walking around for maybe 15 years in my area.
They ALWAYS are in pairs. Always. And never on foot anyway. If there are police they're in cars, vans. Out of those, in pairs or more usually lots. I don't think there's patrolling in most areas even in cars tbh. You only see them whizzing past with lights going.
So a lone man approaching at night, whatever he was wearing, would strike me as a lone man first and foremost.
He could have been a charming conman type of course.
And personally, I don't trust the police at all and never have tbh.
That aside. He got her. Does it matter how?
What really bothers me is that he had committed a red flag sexual crime days earlier and they had his plate and nothing. Doesn't surprise me. But they SHOULD. sexually motivated crimes however serious have impact on the victims, these men are known to escalate. Where's the prevention? Why not get them early?
And he was a copper FFS. He will have had access to vulnerable people, women. Leverage. This is a common thing to be exploited by dodgy men in the police.
And also. The heavy handed reaction to the vigil to me was making a point. One of theirs. Mainly women. A woman murdered by one of their own that they probably could and should have stopped earlier. Turning out aggressive and mob handed.
I have lived with the met for all my life and to me, as my force, they were making a point.
This whole thing is appalling.
Just a few months before the sisters who were murdered. Met police took selfies with the bodies and sent them to watsapp groups for colleagues.
That's the mindset we're dealing with.
Some are great I'm sure but the met as a force is rotten to the core.