Northamptonshire Police launches new strategy to reduce violence against women and girls - but will it be enough?

Police say they will 'unashamedly pursue' perpetrators

By Sarah Ward

In the wake of Sarah Everard’s murder by serving police officer Wayne Cousens last March, there’s been a focus on both the inadequate job police forces across the country have been doing to bring perpetrators of violence against women to justice - coupled with an exposure of misogyny and sexism across the organisation.

In the months after Sarah’s death the Home Office issued a strategy about tackling violence against women and girls and the police inspectorate published a report last summer in which it said the low prosecution rates in cases involving violence against women and girls was ‘indefensible’.

Yesterday Northamptonshire police force officially launched its own local strategy at a press conference held at its Darby House headquarters in Wellingborough, with Detective Superintendent Joe Banfield, Head of Protecting Vulnerable People, saying the force will ‘unashamedly’ pursue perpetrators.

Like most police forces in the country the force has a poor track record on h…