Leading legal charity, Centre for Women's Justice, have today released this statement in response to today's disclosures regarding Met Police officer, David Carrick:
“The revelations about the offending of David Carrick is a case illustration of everything that is wrong with the policing of male violence against women, the police misconduct system and more specifically, misogyny in the Met. The case also reveals the lack of safeguards to prevent police officers from using their powers to abuse women.
The early reports of rape and domestic abuse by Carrick, where no further action was taken, illustrate the woeful inadequacies of the policing of serial sexual offending by the Met, as we saw play out during the same period in relation to the crimes of John Worboys and Kirk Reid. The failure to suspend Carrick from duty or investigate him for misconduct following reports by women, and the threats Carrick made that they would not be believed because he is a police officer, precisely mirror issues we identified in the CWJ police super-complaint on police perpetrated domestic abuse. The fact that Carrick was not suspended following the report made by a woman in July 2021 is truly shocking in the wake of the arrest and investigations into Wayne Couzens by that time.
We now know that Couzens and Carrick were not rogue officers, the revelations of misogyny and serious criminality against women by police officers are frighteningly commonplace. We have known for some time that there has been a culture of impunity for such offending by police officers. Recent reports show a woefully deficient vetting and misconduct system and a largely unchallenged culture of misogyny ins some sections of the Met. That Carrick could have not only become a police officer but remain a serving officer for so long whilst he perpetrated these horrific crimes against women, is terrifying. His crimes, along with a significant number of other Met officers reveals the deeply rotten misogynistic culture that has been allowed to fester within the Met"
Harriet Wistrich, director of Centre for Womens Justice
In CWJ’s police super-complaint on police perpetrated domestic abuse, we made a series of recommendations for improvement, we want to see these implemented as well as other reforms.
They include:
An independent reporting and investigation system for women who report police officers for sexual violence and domestic abuse – enabling them to go to the IOPC or an outside police force
Effective protection for whistle-blowers who too often experience victimisation when they report
An effective vetting and police misconduct system
A zero tolerance of misogyny within policing culture