Bear with us as we work to secure public confidence on sexual offences cases – police
GUERNSEY is ‘nowhere near’ where it needs to be in terms of the public's confidence about its ability to deal with sexual offences, police admitted yesterday.
It comes as results of the sexual offences survey revealed that the public put Guernsey Police’s effectiveness at dealing with issues at just four out of 10.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday to discuss the survey, Deputy Chief Officer Ian Scholes said he had not known what to expect, but the results had not surprised him.
‘I think because of where we aimed the survey, the responses were going to come from people who were adversely affected by the nature of it. So they’re not surprising.’
Almost 1,000 people completed the online survey, which looked at violence, intimidation and inappropriate behaviour in the local night-time economy, and 83% of the respondents were women.
More than eight out of 10 people said they had experienced issues of this nature.
Detective Chief Inspector Julie Palmer said they had already made inroads into tackling the lack of confidence with the police on this issue and have recently taken steps.
These include the installation of nine new CCTV cameras in Town and a more focused and proactive policing approach in the Town centre that officers hoped would help address the issue.
‘I think we need to be fully aware that this is just the beginning of the work, because we’re nowhere near where we aim to be,’ she said.
‘So I think the public need to bear with us and know that this is just the start of the process to try and regain that confidence and trust in the police because it’s not going to be easy, which we all fully appreciate.’
One of the reasons for a lack of belief in the force’s effectiveness was the lack of prosecutions resulting from ‘low level’ sexual assaults and problems such as drink spiking.
Detective Sergeant Nicole Thomas, from the Public Protection Unit, said because of the complex nature of the topic and the low levels of prosecution, the police were never going to satisfy everybody.
‘We will always give every investigation 100% and work with victims, but invariably they won’t always be happy with the outcome through no fault of our own, but it does reflect on the police unfortunately,' she said.
‘But I can reassure you that the officers dealing with it work tirelessly, and it’s as frustrating for us, when we don’t get as far as prosecution, as it is for them.’
