We are 100% committed to ending Violence Against Women and Girls.
We know that every day across Merseyside and in the UK, women and girls are subjected to incidents of violence, hate and sexual assault.
Sadly, many of these incidents go unreported. We know that far more needs to be done to tackle this.
For this reason, we want women and girls across Merseyside to know that both PCC Emily Spurrell and Merseyside Police is committed to tackling the violence and abuse aimed at them.
Merseyside Police spoke to 4,000 women and girls across Merseyside to better understand how safe they feel in the places they live, work, and socialise.
The results show that a staggering 71% of women still live in fear of a sexual assault and that 69% of women say they would not report an incident to the police.
These figures remain unacceptably high and #TakingAction is focused on putting the voices of women and girls at the heart of the work to tackle VAWG and sets out our determination to change things for the better.
“Our focus must be on doing everything possible to prevent VAWG and showing that through the multi-agency VAWG Delivery Plan I launched in November 2022, there is a clear plan to make our region a safer place for all women and girls.
“We have made progress, but there’s much more to do. It’s vital that everyone who has a role to play in improving the safety of women and girls in our region is now focused on #TakingAction.”
Merseyside's Police and Crime Commissioner, Emily Spurrell
What has Merseyside Police done so far?
Since the launch of their strategy, Merseyside Police has:
- engaged and involved women and girls in forums and lived experience workshop so we are better placed to understand and tackle violence and intimidation they face, whilst at the same time providing them with support
- helped men understand the part they have to play in eliminating violence against women and girls with the support of the Safer Streets Campaign which was funded by the Police and Crime Commissioner
- addressed feelings of safety with the introduction of ‘Walk and Talk’ where women and girls are invited to walk with officers on a route that they feel is unsafe to discuss their concerns, and Op Nightsafe (previously Op Empower), our operation, which aims to prevent violence and sexual violence in the nighttime economy.
- worked with partners to ensure a co-ordinated and effective response to preventing and tackling VAWG.
- improved the internal culture of our force to respond effectively to address sexism, misogyny and any breaches of the standard of professional behaviour. Internally we relaunched our ‘Call it Out’ campaign, which aims to empower officers and staff to challenge, report and stop inappropriate behaviour.
- ensured we are conducting checks to see if there is a protective order in place when dealing with perpetrators.
- carried out regular strike days to target perpetrators of domestic abuse.
Find out more about what Merseyside Police are doing to tackle Violence Against Women and Girls.
Find out more about the work Merseyside's Police and Crime Commissioner is doing to tackle Violence Against Women and Girls.