Thread by @Telegraph

Police have been told to attend flashing cases in person.

🔴It comes as it emerged forces failed to carry out proper investigations into Wayne Couzens' earlier alleged sex crimes.

Thread ⬇️

telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/3…

🗣️"The utmost seriousness"

Zoe Billingham, Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary, said indecent exposure should be treated with 'the utmost seriousness' rather than as a 'low level' offence

"Indecent exposure is an incredibly risky act and police should see it as a huge red flag that could escalate," she told @Telegraph

🔴The Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) is looking at why Couzens was not arrested before his behaviour escalated from alleged flashing offences, culminating in the kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard

Two Met officers are also being investigated after Couzens was reported for two incidents of indecent exposure in a McDonald's restaurant, three days before he abducted Ms Everard

In 2020, 10,024 exposure or voyeurism cases were reported to the police.

❌Separate figures from the Ministry of Justice show that in the same year, just 594 - or six per cent - were prosecuted for the same crimes

Figures show that even before the pandemic, police were failing to get a grip on the problem with 10,709 cases reported in 2019 and just 735 prosecutions.

🔴That marks a prosecution rate of around seven per cent

🔴Thousands of the offences remain unreported.

The Office for National Statistics estimates that around 147,000 individuals - almost all women - were victims of indecent exposure in 2019-20 alone

🗣️"Flashing is abusive, appalling and highly sexualised way to behave to a woman," said Victims Commissioner Dame Vera Baird

Read the full report here ⬇️

telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/3…