London’s police force has updated its Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) action plan now that VAWG is one of its strategic priorities.
It is based on building trust and confidence; relentlessly pursuing perpetrators; and working to make spaces safer for women and girls.
Among ten specific commitments is tackling police-perpetrated VAWG and improving the force’s culture to end sexism and misogyny. Police officers Wayne Couzens and David Carrick have each been jailed for life, respectively for murdering Sarah Everard and a series of violent and brutal sexual offences.
Other Met commitments include improving how it listens to victims; investing resources to bolster capacity and capability to tackle VAWG; making better use of police powers, such as civil orders and protection orders, to protect women and girls from perpetrators; and identifying high-risk and high-harm locations for VAWG.
Since the force’s initial action plan launched in April 2022, the charge rates for rape offences and the number of stalking protection orders have doubled.
