Julie Spence - Cambridgeshire Chief Police Constable

The sickening fact is that in Cambridgeshire rape calls are treated as such low priority the police can’t be bothered to deal with them as a priority and have been criticised on more than oneoccasion for their lamentable attitude towards rape.

A 999 call, according to the Chief Constable Julie Spence: will be responded to an answer 999 calls within ten seconds, deploying to emergencies immediately giving an estimated time of arrival, getting to you safely, and as quickly as possible. In urban areas, we will aim to get to you within 15 minutes and in rural areas within 20 minutes.

Except the truth is somewhat different:

At 16:49 a young woman called police and provided full details of a serious sexual assault. No-one bothered to attend.

At 17.19 she called again to inform the police she had just seen her attacker. Once again no-one bothered to attend.

At 18:30 she talked to a PCSO, who told her to go home.

At 03:53 – 11 hours later Cambridgeshire police decided to follow up.

Not just a one off.

At c 20:00 a 999 call was made by nurses in hospital accommodation with concerns about four men who had broken in to the building and were threatening rape and violence. Cambridgeshire police just decided to do nothing.

The men continued to shout abuse so a second 999 call was made, but the police really were not interested.

After three further calls were made by the father of one of the nurses the police decided to turn up just after 00:00. The reason for the delay being, they were a ’secondary emergency’.

Cambridgeshire Police force continue to treat rape as a low priority crime, in 2007 they managed just over a 3% conviction rate.

After the Judge made his comments on the first instance Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hopkins, said the judge’s comments had been noted.

In September 2008 the force was criticised by Judge Nicholas Coleman for releasing Zeno Havirneau on bail after he was arrested for raping a woman in her own home.

It is long past time that Chief Constable Julie Spence was fired. She is responsible for a police force which treats rape as a minor issue and it isn’t acceptable.

Cambridgeshire Police force are your police, not hers.

Cambridgeshire police force region

Cambridgeshire constabulary covers an area of over 3 500 square kilometres with a polulation of 700 000.

There are 1 400 police officers and 200 PCSOs.

If you live in the Cambridge police force area and would like to contribute to the site please contact: tim @ yourpoliceforce.com