Police Must Win Back Public Confidence After Sarah Everard Case

Police will have to work hard to rebuild public confidence following the murder of Sarah Everard by serving officer Wayne Couzens, a minister has said, as Scotland Yard said people stopped by a lone plainclothes officer should challenge their legitimacy.

Couzens, who joined the Metropolitan police in 2018, was handed a rare whole-life sentence on Thursday for the kidnap, rape and murder of 33-year-old Everard as she walked home in south London in March.

The Met announced on Thursday night it would no longer deploy plainclothes officers on their own after the sentencing hearing was told Couzens had used lockdown rules to falsely arrest Everard during the abduction.

On Friday, the policing minister, Kit Malthouse, told Sky News: “[The police] recognise that this has struck a devastating blow to the confidence that people have in police officers but also in the Met police in particular.

“For those thousands and thousands of police officers out there who will have to work harder – much harder – to win public trust it is a very, very difficult time.”

The Met has encouraged members of the public to challenge lone plainclothes police officers if they are ever approached, asking where the officer’s colleagues are, where they have come from, why they are there, and exactly why they are stopping or talking to them.

They also suggest verifying the police officer by asking to hear their radio operator or asking to speak to the radio operator themselves.

“All officers will, of course, know about this case and will be expecting in an interaction like that – rare as it may be – that members of the public may be understandably concerned and more distrusting than they previously would have been, and should and will expect to be asked more questions,” the force said in a statement.

The advice was issued as pressure mounted on the Metropolitan police commissioner, Cressida Dick, to resign over the case, which has sparked a national outcry over the safety of women on Britain’s streets.

The Conservative MP Caroline Nokes, Labour MP Harriet Harman and Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse are among those calling for the beleaguered Met chief to step down.

Malthouse backed the commissioner on Friday, adding that the role was one of the “most difficult jobs in the country”.

“What I want in a policing leader is when awful calamities like this happen … I want a police leader who is transparent, willing to learn, willing to change and has a conviction and a commitment not to be defensive about the failings of the organisation and that’s what we’re seeing in Cressida Dick,” he said.

“She is a dedicated and talented and committed police officer who is driving the Metropolitan police to ever greater standards of care and improvement and fighting crime.”

On Thursday, a former senior Met officer said women in the police were afraid to report their male colleagues for misconduct due to fears they would be abandoned if they needed help.

Parm Sandhu, a former chief superintendent in the Met, said she had been “vilified” when she raised concerns about the way she was treated. She told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One: “The police service is very sexist and misogynistic. A lot of women will not report their colleagues.

“What happens is that male police officers will then close ranks and the fear that most women police officers have got is that when you are calling for help, you press that emergency button or your radio, they’re not going to turn up and you’re going to get kicked in the street.”