“
I'm really sorry,
” Cressida Dick said on September 30th. London's chief police officer, the Metropolitan Police, was speaking to an audience of reporters outside the Old Bailey, the court which sentenced Wayne Couzens to life. The police officer, on duty, kidnapped, raped, murdered and then burned a 33-year-old Londoner, Sarah Everard, causing a national explosion in the country, which further damaged the bond of trust - already eroded in recent years - between Scotland Yard and the British. Many signals would indeed have been ignored by the hierarchy of the agent. Cressida Dick says she regrets that this affair "
shames Scotland Yard
". "
Why don't you quit then?
», Launches a man in the crowd.
Only a few days later, a new case added fuel to the fire.
On October 4, a woman accuses a police officer of having raped her after a meeting on the Tinder application in August 2020. He worked in the same unit as Couzens.
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Neither the regrets of the head of the London police force nor those of Boris Johnson calmed the spirits.
On October 5, in an interview with Sky News, the Prime Minister lamented Britain's loss of confidence in their police and their ability to actually help and protect rape victims.
The crisis is all the more deep as, traditionally, this confidence is strong, even very strong, explains Ben Bradford, professor at the Institute of Criminal Sciences in London.
But between 2015 and 2021, the rate of people believing the police to be reliable fell 14 points, from 77 to 63%, according to figures from the London Police and Crime Authority (MOPAC).
How to explain such a fall?
Rape decriminalized?
The mistrust of the British stems first of all from the extreme difficulty for the victims of rape and sexual assault to obtain the conviction of their attacker. Today in the UK 84% of rapes and sexual offenses go unreported, only 1.6% of reported rapes result in a charge and around 1% in a conviction, according to figures revealed by the Department of Justice. 'Home Affairs and the UK National Statistics Office. An extremely low rate which prompted Victims Commissioner Vera Baird to say that the UK was witnessing the "
decriminalization of rape
". The complaint and investigation process, which gives pride of place to the assessment of the victim's credibility, can take up to 4 years,thus discouraging a large majority of potential complainants. "
The police investigation is so traumatic that some say it is even worse than the initial rape
, ”explains Katrin Hohl, a criminologist at City University of London.
Police accused of closing their eyes
In the Sarah Everard case, Scotland Yard is accused of having ignored a series of alarming signals about the behavior of the accused.
Nicknamed "the rapist" by his colleagues, he had also been involved in three incidents of exhibitionism at a McDonald's and sent misogynistic, racist and homophobic messages to other police officers in a WhatsApp group.
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A negligence which allowed the police officer to cross the road of Sarah Everard.
A surveillance camera shows that on the night Couzens attacked her, he used his police card to arrest her and get her into his car.
“She
sure trusted him because he was a policeman.
It is very unlikely that she would have gotten into another man's car
, ”Ben Bradford said.
People wonder how "
a repeat sexual predator, nicknamed 'the rapist', was able to continue working as a police officer
," explains Katrin Hohl.
This obviously raises questions of trust and legitimacy
”.
A poorly managed crisis
In its official reaction to this tragedy, the Metropolitan Police advised people worried about a lone policeman to shout, knock on doors, "
wave at a bus or call 999
".
Recommendations that shocked.
According to Ben Bradford, this reaction “
blames the victim.
This corresponds exactly to the advice given to women not to wear short skirts and not to get drunk (...) It is to place the responsibility for their protection on the individuals themselves rather than on take responsibility (for its failures) as an organization
”.
While public opinion expected the resignation - voluntary or forced - of the head of the Metropolitan Police, the latter saw her mandate renewed until 2024 by the Minister of the Interior. "
It would have had a signal value
," says Professor Hohl. Moreover, contrary to the wishes of the population, the investigation carried out is a non-statutory investigation carried out by the Ministry of the Interior. It is “
an investigation without much power
(neither intervention of a judge, nor summons of witnesses, editor's note)
. If the government really wanted to tackle the problem of violence against women, it should have asked for a Royal Commission
, ”says Hohl. An option that the Prime Minister refused.
"There could be a French Sarah Everard anytime"
Katrin Hohl, Professor of Criminology at City University of London
The two criminologists, however, relativize the extent of the current crisis of confidence. "
Scandals tend to have only a temporary impact on people's confidence in the police
." According to them, appeasing this wave of anger requires concrete changes to the functioning of the police to prevent such a situation from happening again. Finally, “
the crisis of police confidence revealed three problems. There is a societal, political and institutional aspect
”. This crisis is also not specific to the British police. “
There could be a French Sarah Everard anytime. It is a global problem
, ”summarizes Hohl.
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An independent investigation by the Police of Police (IOPC), in addition to the previous ones, is underway.
It aims to establish the institutional loopholes that allowed Couzens to remain employed in the police force, while Carrick, the other police officer accused of rape, will appear in court on November 1.
"
It's not enough to change the way I feel on the street,
" said a young woman at the microphone of the Sky News channel.
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