LOCK UP CATCALLERS
Men who ‘catcall’ women or follow them in street should be arrested after Sarah Everard murder, demands Harriet Harman
MEN who catcall women or follow them in the street should be arrested and have their driving licenses taken away, MP Harriet Harman has said.
It comes after Sarah Everard was strangled to death by a monster cop who abducted her as she walked home in Clapham, south London.
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Met Police commissioner Cressida Dick yesterday said "I'm so sorry" to Sarah's family as Britain's embattled top copper faced a frenzy of calls to resign.
The Met Police commissioner is hanging by a thread after cold-blooded cop Wayne Couzens kidnapped, raped and murdered Sarah on her watch.
She said that Couzens had brought shame on the force in “one of the most dreadful events in the 192-year history of the Metropolitan Police”.
But Britain's longest serving female MP Harriet Harman has today slammed the Met boss, saying an apology is not good enough and that immediate action needs to be taken.
She told Good Morning Britain: “I know Cressida Dick is sorry. It is her job to have led on this and she hasn't done it.
“It's not good enough for her to be asking questions after. She should be saying these are the new requirements.
“She needs to bring in a victims law. We need new laws, tougher policing.
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“She needs to bring in new criminal offences so that if a man curb crawls a girl walking home in the dark in his car - that's a criminal offence and he gets his license taken away.
“That if he follows a woman walking too closely behind her in the street, asking her out, asking for her number, asking why she is not answering him, that that is harassment and it's a criminal offence.”
Catcalling and curb crawling are not illegal in the UK, but police forces vary in their approach.
A poll by YouGov found 85 per cent of women aged 18 to 24 said they received unwelcome advances from men in public.
Meanwhile Ms Harman also believes an overhaul of police forces is also needed for officers to regain the trust of women.
She said: “Women should be absolutely certain that they can trust the police.
“What we need is proper action plan to ensure that women are entitled to feel comfortable.
“It's things like if there's an allegation of violence against against a police officer then that's immediate suspension.
'VETTING REVAMP NEEDED'
“There's an investigation - not by his mates - but by a different force.
“That if you cover up for a colleague that that is gross misconduct and you should be fired.
“That there should be a revamping of the vetting process.
“Women need to know that the force is there to protect them that there to help them.”
Police have issued guidance on what women should do if approached by a lone officer.
This includes asking "very searching" questions, such as "where are your colleagues?" and asking to hear the voice of the operator over their radio.
They also suggest shouting out to passers-by, running away or waving a bus down.
Women should be absolutely certain that they can trust the police.
MP Harriet Harman
A former Met employee has said this immediate guidance is "legitimate and responsible", but more needs to be done.
And he has now joined calls for misogyny to properly be defined in law and treated as a hate crime.
Ronald Winch, who served for more than 30 years with the force and West Midlands Police, said: "The Metropolitan Police has set out some immediate guidance and the balance is always to inform and support the public without generating additional fears of crime.
"My view is that the advice is legitimate and responsible. However, we must remember that at the heart of this debate is the sheer cruelty and breach of trust, centred around the premeditated murder of a young woman."
Mr Winch, now a Senior Teaching Fellow in Policing at Birmingham City University, added: "I would like to see misogyny properly defined in law and treated as a hate crime.
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"We must reflect differently on victim and family experiences regarding crime and give more voice and authority to those affected by serious crime.
"Officers must be patient and professional in providing additional explanations when using police powers with respect to women and girls who may feel nervous about interactions with the police."
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Former detective Simon Harding states 'Wayne Couzens doesn't stand alone in bad behaviour but he took it to another level'
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