Chief Constable vows to do more in fight to improve women and girls feeling of safety
Catherine Roper admits women and girls still don't feel safe
Wiltshire's top police officer has vowed to continue doing more to ensure women and girls in the county feel safe.
Chief Constable Catherine Roper's comments come five years after the murder of Sarah Everard, who was kidnapped by off-duty Met Police officer Wayne Couzens.
Chief Roper described it as an act of "evil" and said people were let down as a result.
She admits women and girls still aren't feeling safe, and there is a lot of work to do.
"We know that all of the efforts that we've done, and we have done a lot, but it's not enough, because otherwise women and girls would still would feel safer and they still don't," the Chief Constable said.
She has pledged to keep working with women and girls to break down the barriers to trust and confidence in policing, insisting it is vital that is achieved in order to help them feel safe.
Police vetting of the highest standards
Chief Roper told Greatest Hits Radio that significant progress has been made with regards to vetting processes, considering them as among the toughest in the country.
She told us that the Force does not accept vetting from other policing organisations and reassured us that the vetting procedure to join Wiltshire Police is "extremely thorough", meaning it can take some to complete.
The Chief, who stresses her commitment to being open and honest with the public, admitted to two occasions of risk tolerance management, which can be permitted whilst a prospective officer or staff member awaits their clearance.
During this phase, strict and safeguarding conditions are put in place, with the Chief insisting that anyone in this situation cannot enter Wiltshire Police premises or access their systems, adding that all national APP processes are followed and it is an authorised professional practice.
She highlighted a case of a financial expert being required as one example of a risk tolerance management being used. The employee was granted clearance and the vetting process successfully completed just days later.
Working with communities
The chief stressed the need for working alongside the public to achieve the goal of safety for women and girls.
The Force has Operation Vigilant, which includes high-visibility and covert patrols to spot predatory behaviour and take action before someone comes to harm.
Chief Roper said: "We work with our communities to make sure that we've trained up our communities to also recognise predatory behaviour.
"We have initiatives like Ask for Angela and we work very closely with our licenced premises to make sure that if people feel uncomfortable, if people feel in trouble, if people need help, then there is a way that we can help them."
In the wake of Sarah's murder, and women and girls raising their concerns about feeling unsafe, officers in Wiltshire can now have their identity verified by members of the public.
If someone is unhappy with what is happening when being approached by an officer, they are entitled to verify the identity of that officer by calling the police control room.
"What we're trying to do is checks and balances all the way to make sure that we can really improve the trust and confidence of women and girls in policing," the Chief Constable said.
Internal action improved
Since taking charge in Wiltshire, Chief Roper has overseen a major improvement in opening up channels for officers and staff to raise concerns about colleagues.
She said that has lead to more reports being made, which she is pleased about, Chief Roper insisted she finds the fact that such behaviour exists to be reported is unacceptable.
Officers and staff can raise concerns to any of their line managers and the chief officer group, with the message to employees to speak out where they feel standards aren't being met.
Complaints made against other members of the organisation are reviewed externally by Dorset Police, as part of an agreement between the two Forces to ensure reports are assessed independently.
The Chief did raise concerns that the increase in reporting reflects a culture that remains below standards.
"We have feedback internally that the culture within Wiltshire Police is quite misogynistic, that people are still behaving inappropriately and we continue to focus on how we can encourage people to come forward, but also how we can be ever more visible as a senior leadership team to make sure that we're really, really clear about what's acceptable in terms of our culture and what absolutely is not," she said.
The Chief said such behaviour won't be tolerated and she will be unrelenting in her pursuit of the highest standards from her officers.
"We will be there"
Alongside her vow to do more to improve the feeling of safety for women and girls, the Chief urged them to engage with the Force and report crimes.
"We do need them to trust us, to phone us and to tell us where they're not feeling safe and tell us why they're not feeling safe and then we can make sure that we can flex our policing response accordingly."
She underlined the importance of intelligence from the public in allowing officers to act.
"If you're ever scared, just pick up the phone and dial 999, and we will absolutely be there."