Commissioner Dick meets with Southwark and Lambeth community groups to discuss violence against women

The Metropolitan Police Commissioner has met with community groups from Lambeth and Southwark to discuss the force’s plans to tackle violence against women and girls.

This comes as it was revealed yesterday that two Met officers have pleaded guilty to taking pictures with the dead bodies of murdered sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman.

One officer was said to have superimposed his own head on to the body of one of the women in the images shared with colleagues and friends.

Today the Commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick, unveiled plans to tackle violence against women and girls in the Capital in a bid to restore faith in the force.

As part of the plan, the Met will pilot a scheme in the two boroughs where teams of plain-clothed and uniformed officers will be deployed together to identify predators near pubs, bars and clubs.

The idea is that the undercover officers will identify “anyone who may be displaying predatory behaviour” in public spaces and ask uniformed colleagues to step in when needed.

Dame Cressida said: “This plan details how we will do more and better to keep women and girls safe.

“It brings together all of our work to prevent male violence against women and girls, in public spaces as well as domestic settings and online; to target perpetrators, and with the wider criminal justice service, to improve outcomes for victims.

“We will increase officers’ skills and maximise the impact of key units such as our predatory offender units, town centre teams, and other specialist units, and further improve digital investigation, intelligence and the quality of case files.

“We want the public’s views and will update the plan following this engagement.”

Last month the Met said that undercover officers will video-call a uniformed sergeant to prove their identity if they ever need to stop a lone woman.

Concerns had been raised following the death of 33-year-old Sarah Everard, a marketing executive from Brixton, who was killed by serving officer Wayne Couzens after he staged a fake arrest in order to kidnap, rape and murder her.

Initial advice from the force for women who feel unsure about someone claiming to be a police officer was to flag down a passing bus or run into someone’s house but this was heavily criticised at the time.