Reducing Violence Against Women and Girls is a key priority for me as Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner and for Essex Police. We are having some success, with sexual violence down by 12% last year and domestic abuse by 15%. The number of successful rape prosecutions has increased threefold. But there is much more to do. We are investing in making our streets safer, with more CCTV, better lighting, and awareness campaigns. Our Minerva system for mapping where women are particularly vulnerable and at risk has received national recognition. We share the information with local community safety partnerships and make joint local interventions. And in the night time economy, we support the SOS / Night Bus, Ask for Angela (which allows women to ask for support in bars and clubs) and Purple Flag and All Bar None schemes. Longer term measures involve work in schools, helping young people reflect and understand the effects of harassment and abuse.
No woman should feel unsafe in her own community. I will spend time listening directly to women affected by violence against them to discuss and understand what we can do differently, and I will act on this. I will continue to work hard with other agencies to encourage survivors of abuse and violence to come forward and will invest in specialist support services to offer the support that they need and to help them move on, while at the same time robustly targeting offenders to break the cycle of violence against women. I will increase investment in support services such as counselling, advocacy and therapeutic support and Independent Sexual Violence Advisors and Independent Domestic Violence Advisors as this has proved invaluable in providing support when needed and in preventing these crimes happening. We have established a steering group for Violence against Women and Girls under the Safer Essex Partnership. We all need to work together to help women to be safe and feel safe, to be respected and to live their lives free of fear. I will speak up to condemn male violence against women.
