ID checks for officers when stopping women

PLAIN clothed officers in the Metropolitan Police will make a video call to confirm their identity when stopping an unaccompanied woman, it has been announced.

Dame Cressida Dick, the Met Commissioner, told members of the London Assembly that the new system was being introduced following the murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard by a serving police officer.

Wayne Couzens was sentenced to a whole life term last month after he staged a fake arrest in order to kidnap and rape the marketing executive as she walked home in south London in March.

The force was heavily criticised after a Police Commissioner suggested that women who are concerned they are not being stopped legitimately should try to flag down a passing bus or run to a nearby house.

Dame Cressida said that advice has now been reviewed. “I completely understand why that ended up as the headline,” she said.

“It was not intended, and it is not how we see things. “What I can say today is that we are launching our Safe Connection, as we call it, which allows a woman who is stopped by such a police officer immediately to have verification that this is a police officer.

“Because my plain clothes officers will call into a control room, they will then have a video call with a sergeant in uniform who will say ‘yes that’s so-and-so, he’s PC XYZ’. So a quick and easy way which is instigated by the officer, not by the woman having to ask for this.”

Wiltshire Police have already announced a similar scheme whereby officers will put their personal radio on loudspeaker and ask their control room to confirm their identity.

Dame Cressida said the onus should be on the police officer to properly identify themselves, “and recognise that the woman may feel uncomfortable”.

Legal action has been launched after a British Transport Police constable was allowed to keep his job after using his warrant card to harass a lone female jogger last year.

Imran Aftab was found guilty of gross misconduct by the Independent Office for Police Conduct and given a written warning.

BTP are now challenging that decision.