Watchdog accuses police of sex harassment by police officers

     Male police officers, including family liaison specialists, are
     sexually harassing female colleagues and members of the public,
     despite repeated warnings behaviour, a watchdog said yesterday.

     The Police Complaints Authority also criticised the lenient 
     treatment of some sexist officers who, it said, would be sacked
     for their behaviour in any other job but often escaped with a
     fine or reprimand.

     The PCA highlighted unacceptable behaviour by male family liaison
     officers and raised doubts over whether men should be used in 
     such roles. Male officers were found to have formed "inappropriate
     relationships" with vulnerable women they met in the line of work,
     and some investigations of domestic violence complaints were
     "poor", with officers showing discrimination against women, the
     report said.
 
     The PCA noted that it had criticised elements in the police service
     for sexist attitudes five years ago and that most complaints 
     involved allegations of officers pursing women they had met during
     their work.
    
     Serious misconduct against women by male officers was still 
     "tolerated" by some disciplinary tribunals when "in other employment
     settings dismissal would result".

     Ian Bynoe, the authority's deputy chairman, said: "In other walks 
     of life that behaviour would be viewed as entirely unacceptable
     with continuation of service. We are surprised to see the 
     continuation of service of officers against whom allegations have
     been proved.

     Women now made 23 per cent of all complaints against the police
     compared with only 15 per cent in 1993, the report said.

    The PCA said there was a need for disciplinary action or other measures
    in more than a quarter of complaints against police received in the year
    to April 2003 - 936 out of 3,547 investigations.
    The highest number of complaints for every 1,000 officers in service 
    was in Staffordshire (235) followed by North Yorkshire (207).

     By Jason Bennetto, Crime Correspondent
     17 September 2003

    http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/story.jsp?story=444114

    -------------------------------------------------------------


              FURTHER REFERENCES

  GO - "search perceptions" - in SEARCH-ENGINE


file-ID www.perceptions.couk.com/badcops23.txt