Trust in policing has suffered a “measurable sea change” - with a big loss of confidence among women victims, a leading lawyer warns.
NEW PODCAST SERIES: Inside the Case
Fifth episode: "The Black Cab Rapist"
Harriet Wistrich, who acted in landmark legal challenges in the case of serial “Black Cab Rapist” John Worboys, says “we are seeing much more mistrust in policing than ever before.”
In the latest episode of the podcast, Inside the Case, from The University of Law, she notes how the police historically - and still - defer to the suspect, while aggressively scrutinising the victim.
Harriet adds:
“One of the things that they [the women victims] felt particularly devastated about was that because the police didn't believe them, he was able to attack so many more women.”
“Worboys was caught on CCTV so he was actually arrested. You read that police interview and they were almost embarrassed about having to arrest him.”
“When I first started doing police action work, which was in the mid to late 90s, the people who had the least trust in the police tended to be from the black community... You didn't particularly see that around women, or certainly non-black women.
“And that's the thing that's really emerged in the last few years, is there’s much more mistrust from women in policing than before.”
Wistrich says that recent high-profile cases of police failures and misconduct, such as those of police officers Wayne Couzens and David Carrick, have resulted in “a measurable sea change…in terms of trust in policing, particularly amongst women”.
Her comments coincide with a national debate over the murder of Henry Nowak, his treatment by police officers and claims of a “two-tier” system of justice.
The episode examines police failings and the crisis of confidence in policing among women, which was fuelled by the “astonishing” systemic failures and “outrageous” bias that emerged in the John Worboys case.
These failings allowed Worboys to assault possibly more than 100 women before his eventual conviction.
“The police are saying, 'Well, a black cab driver wouldn't risk his licence,'” Wistrich recalls, noting a police failure to join the dots in ten highly similar reports from women.
At least one sexual assault report was recorded merely as a “crime-related incident” rather than a crime. "They [the police] were under pressure to reduce the number of unsolved crimes,” Wistrich notes.
She criticises a fundamental flaw in police methodology - a historic focus on the victim’s credibility.
There is a need, she says, for a radical shift: “It's about refocusing the whole way in which police investigations into rape and sexual assault take place... focusing on the suspect and building the case rather than looking at victims' credibility from the outset, which is just pretty outrageous.”
Declining public trust in the police
The interview also looks at the erosion of public confidence after high-profile tragedies involving police perpetrators in the last several years.
This used to be felt most acutely within ethnic minority communities, she says, but now is more evident among women. “What we've seen... is the much more mistrust from women in policing than before.”
She notes that “about 3% of reported rapes result in a charge,” which effectively leaves perpetrators with “very significant immunity” and women across the country trapped in what has become a literal “potluck” of public safety.
The Human Rights Act: a means of holding the state to account
A central focus of the episode is the groundbreaking legal strategy used to challenge Institutional failings.
Wistrich used Article 3 of the Human Rights Act to establish a landmark Supreme Court ruling which imposes a legally enforceable operational duty on the police properly to investigate serious crimes.
She also warns against rolling back human rights legislation. Wistrich argues the Human Rights Act is the ultimate line of defence for ordinary citizens.
“What you don't hear, and what's a really, really important message to get across... is that it also is the only mechanism by which victims can hold the state accountable to ensure that they protect the public,” she says
The full interview is available on YouTube.