Met Police: Officers to use video calls to verify themselves to lone women
Plain-clothes police officers stopping lone women will be able to confirm their identity through a video call, says Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick.
The commissioner told the police and crime committee at City Hall that she will soon be launching the “Safe Connection” initiative.
The initiative will allow plain clothes officers to verify themselves via video call with a uniformed sergeant.
Dame Cressida explained it would allow a woman who was stopped by an officer to immediately have proof they are genuine.
She said, “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’ and so on”.
The new system is being introduced after Sarah Everard was murdered by a serving officer who kidnapped her by faking an arrest.
As a serving officer, Wayne Couzens used his warrant card and handcuffs to kidnap her as she walked home from a friend’s house in south London.
Couzens was given a whole-life sentence last month
Dame Cressida told London Assembly members that “the onus is on the officer” to make lone women feel safe.
She said the video call will be “instigated by the officer and not by the woman having to ask for this.”
The announcement also follows criticism directed towards the Met in the aftermath of the sentencing for suggesting that women should “flag down a bus” if they felt unsafe when approached by an officer.
Dame Cressida said it was not the force’s intention to create headlines to alarm people.
Despite originally defending the comments, the Comissioner recognised “the onus is on officers” to make women feel safe.
The announcement follows a similar scheme being introduced by Wiltshire Police earlier this month.