Don’t dismiss flashing as offence by ‘dirty old men’, police urged

‘It made us think that we had to have another look at what we know about indecent exposure’

POLICE are to be told they must not treat indecent exposure as a petty offence only carried out by “dirty old men”.

Guidance being drawn up by the police standards body is expected to spell out how “flashing” should be treated more seriously as some men go on to commit violent sexual attacks.

Figures suggest fewer than 6 per cent of the 10,000 offences of indecent exposure reported each year result in a charge or summons. The College of Policing is conducting a review in the wake of the scandal over Pc Wayne Couzens.

Couzens, a Metropolitan Police officer, exposed himself to at least three women in the months before he kidnapped, raped and murdered Sarah Everard, 33, in March 2021.

Dave Tucker, head of crime at the College of Policing, said: “We need to move on from seeing indecent exposure as dirty old men who pose no threat.

“We need to be more sophisticated in our understanding and approach ... after recent events, it made us think that we had to have another look at what we know about indecent exposure. What do we know about its links to other types of offending?

The guidance is expected to require police to review and prioritise cases.

“Do we need to set out a more structured response to how we might deal with it,” said Mr Tucker. “If people have access to vulnerable people, you will want to take action with them more quickly. Similarly, if it is someone who already has a history wof offending, or is on licence or bail for a particular offence, those are the cases where you might need to put something more formal and quicker in place,” he added.

An analysis of studies into sexual exhibitionism by psychologists in the United States found that up to 25 per cent of those who indecently exposed themselves to others went on to carry out further or more serious crimes.

In British policing, it had been seen as a relatively low-level crime with little attention paid to whether perpetrators could escalate their offending.

The move comes amid a 19 per cent increase in reported sexual offences to nearly 190,000, according to the Office for National Statistics. The rise has been partly attributed to the publicity surrounding the Everard case which encouraged victims of sexual assault to come forward.

Concerns about how the police treat sexual offences have also been heightened by the David Carrick scandal.

Like Couzens, Carrick was a serving Met officer who carried out 85 serious offences against 12 women – including 48 rapes – spanning 20 years, with repeated clues of the danger that he posed missed by Britain’s biggest force.

He was jailed for at least 30 years in February.