Enjoy beating up women? Become a policeman!

[Clymene]

An FOI request by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has found that most forces simply don't investigate allegations of domestic violence against serving officers:

'there had been nearly 700 reports of domestic abuse by police officers in the three years to 2018 – averaging more than four a week. Less than one in ten reports resulted in a dismissal or warning. Only 3.9% of reports resulted in a conviction, compared with 6.2% among the general public.'

The police are deeply institutionally misogynist.

Full article (warning, contains graphic details of physical and emotional abuse): www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2021-06-15/years-of-living-in-fear-police-still-failing-partners-of-violent-officers

This is awful and so depressing but it’s not all policemen.
I’ve been married to one for 22 years and I have never been disrespected in any way by him.
He is horrified by abuse and understands the harm this behaviour causes.

@whippitwoowoo

This is awful and so depressing but it’s not all policemen. I’ve been married to one for 22 years and I have never been disrespected in any way by him. He is horrified by abuse and understands the harm this behaviour causes.

Agreed, I can’t bear these over dramatic post titles with equally generalised content. Balanced, rational thought is in short supply these days.

Obviously NAPALT whippetwoowoo but it's about the system and attitudes in place that mean these cases are ignored and the women count for nothing.

I spoke to a women who had worked with domestic violence survivors all her career, she told me being in either the police or fire brigade is a slight red flag for her, as she had dealt with so many cases involving them and also the way colleagues closed around them.

I don't know, what can be done? Another investigation and report, another training course?

When is it going to be just understood, dont be an aggressive bullying shit?

Agree with PPs. I'm a police officer (that's the term these days by the way - especially funny since you're posting on a feminist board) and the many male officers I work with are polite and respectful. In my last force I knew several who were arrested over allegations of domestic violence. The evidence didn't stack up and there was no conviction. The CPS were the ones who made the ultimate decision to discontinue the case, not the police.

Asaph I see the Not My Nigel crew are out in force this morning

There is something about policemen and DV that rings a bell - I'm pretty sure they have the highest amounts of dv compared to any other profession.

I think - and it's just my opinion, there are two types of people who join the police, type one wants to help the public and victims of crime - type 2 enjoys the power they have over others. Type 2 is usually most talked about and type 1 gets tarred with the same brush.

@Clymene

Asaph I see the Not My Nigel crew are out in force this morning

So you're happy to listen to bad anecdotes about the police but not good ones? I'm not saying the police never fail anyone and every copper is a good human being. It's a vast profession and just like anywhere else you'll always get bad eggs no matter now much DV and abuse training you put them through. Ultimately it's the police who arrest the police and it's the CPS making the charging decisions now. You can't vet the inside of someone's head.

@Wiltshire90

Agree with PPs. I'm a police officer (that's the term these days by the way - especially funny since you're posting on a feminist board) and the many male officers I work with are polite and respectful. In my last force I knew several who were arrested over allegations of domestic violence. The evidence didn't stack up and there was no conviction. The CPS were the ones who made the ultimate decision to discontinue the case, not the police.

The OP referred to policemen I assume because she was referring to domestic violence by males against women. Why the defensiveness on here? No-one is saying all members of the police force are abusers, but the research suggests there is a higher proportion than among the general population.

Well yes, I've been happily married to a man for a while a while now, we know it's not ALL men. It's just TOO MANY men. And this isn't about whether all police officers abusers, it's about the force's role in enabling and protecting abusers. If there are some 'good' officers, why don't they tackle this issue?

Why are we having to NAPALT all over this?
Noone has anything to say about the higher rates of DV/lower rates of conviction?

I think any allegation of DV should be referred to professional standards for some disciplinary investigation but there probably isn't resource for that.

Defensiveness is typical.

Statistics show male police officers are perpetrating violence towards their domestic partners at a higher rate than the general population.

Instead of NAMALT, why don't you offer ways of stopping it? There's no need to be defensive when analysing population level statistics unless you're literally part of the problem.

@ForgotAboutThis

Well yes, I've been happily married to a man for a while a while now, we know it's not ALL men. It's just TOO MANY men. And this isn't about whether all police officers abusers, it's about the force's role in enabling and protecting abusers. If there are some 'good' officers, why don't they tackle this issue?

Exactly. Not all men, but it IS MEN.

CPS make their decisions based on what information they are presented with. Policemen can lose, destroy, delay any of this information quite easily, especially if their pals are like minded. I’m not surprised the conviction rates are so low.

Surely this does not come as a shock to most people?

The CPS are also responsible for the low number of rape cases taken to court. I assume this is a 'risk averse' strategy and it's time for some sort of enquiry, or new way of working.

The thread title is divisive and looks as though it should have been written by the twitterati, sorry Op.

The figures should speak for themselves, and they do. It would be interesting to see what figures are like for the armed forces, anyone got anything on this?

I am the victim of an abusive policeman. He used his authority as a policeman expressly and shamelessly against more than one victim over a long period without any consequences until recently. The fact that no one has proceeded against him till now highlights that this is a structural problem.

My solicitor told me that step 1 is to accept that he’s “one of their own” and adjust my expectations of the police accordingly.

Who knows, maybe one of the lovely respectful husbands on this thread is among those turning a deaf ear to me? We’ll never know.

Wasn’t there some suggestion of an external, independent police unit to be responsible for investigating accusations of DV/stalking etc by police officers? - Then it’s not the mates investigating.

There are some professions that attract those who want to exploit and have power over others - police, medicine etc... Systemic protections are needed to ensure they are weeded out/suitably dealt with. All in those professions have a duty to stand up against such people.

@highame

The CPS are also responsible for the low number of rape cases taken to court. I assume this is a 'risk averse' strategy and it's time for some sort of enquiry, or new way of working.

The thread title is divisive and looks as though it should have been written by the twitterati, sorry Op.

The figures should speak for themselves, and they do. It would be interesting to see what figures are like for the armed forces, anyone got anything on this?

Divisive? I'm angry. I'm angry that women in relationships with men who are charged with upholding the law do not receive justice when those men assault them.

It's not anecdotal either - it's an investigation of 700 allegations where fewer than 1 in 10 resulted in any sanctions whatsoever.

Why is a man accused of DV being investigated by his own colleagues? Surely there should be protocol against that? If a serving officer was accused of any other crime, would he be investigated by another force?

This is the feminism topic. If there are police officers on this thread who abhor this, what are you doing about it?

My daughter is a police officer. What would you like her to do about this?

Your daughter will require considerable courage to do anything.
I believe that “my” female officer is experiencing problems as a result of helping me (she can’t tell me obviously)

@Wiltshire90

Agree with PPs. I'm a police officer (that's the term these days by the way - especially funny since you're posting on a feminist board) and the many male officers I work with are polite and respectful. In my last force I knew several who were arrested over allegations of domestic violence. The evidence didn't stack up and there was no conviction. The CPS were the ones who made the ultimate decision to discontinue the case, not the police.

So you don’t think that 700 police officers is 700 too many??

@AramintaArrowsmith

My daughter is a police officer. What would you like her to do about this?

Nothing.

Let’s just ignore the fact that policeman, according to the statistics, are more likely to be abusers, just because it might upset Araminta, and her daughters sensibilities

This thread is like a rewind of the last 14 years of my life..........

I object to the inflammatory title of this post. I know decent police officers who are men and who do a very difficult and thankless job. They are not all the same.

Anyone see unbelievable on netflix? Looks like they have a similar problem in the states. It really shouldnt be acceptable for someone holding such a role to carry on with the job with an accusation of DV against them' when they are responsible for investigating the same crimes. Its concerning that statistically they have lower convictions than Joe Bloggs. It would explain why so many women are murderered because the police didnt take their reports serious enough