Angiolini Inquiry

Part 1 – one year on

The Angiolini Inquiry was established to investigate how an off-duty police officer was able to abduct, rape and murder a member of the public. The findings and recommendations of this investigation were presented in part 1 in February 2024.

Policing accepted all recommendations made and over the last year much work has been ongoing to develop and take forward these recommendations, building the necessary steps to embed them in processes and culture.

Recommendation 14[1] focussed on “Positive culture and elimination of misconduct or criminality often excused as ‘banter’”. The Inquiry stated that every police force should commit publicly to being an anti-sexist, anti-misogynistic, anti-racist organisation. It was agreed by all police chiefs in England, Scotland and Wales that we commit to a police service that is anti-discriminatory, placing inclusion at the heart of culture and today this statement is underlined.

Chief Constable Nick Dean said: “In 2024, Cambridgeshire Constabulary wholly accepted the inquiry recommendations for policing, and we have undertaken significant activity to commit publicly to being an anti-sexist, anti-misogynistic, anti-racist organisation, underpinned by our force culture statement which is front and centre of our Corporate Plan. 

“This sets out the behaviour expected of officers and staff, making our clear commitment to creating an inclusive working environment for our staff, and to build trust and confidence with our communities.

“While we cannot change what has gone before, our focus is on ensuring anyone who is not committed to operating at the highest standards of police conduct has no place in Cambridgeshire Constabulary, and we are working hard to ensure robust vetting practices, cultivating a culture of speaking out and being transparent and accountable to the public in everything we do.“

Cambridgeshire Constabulary has made good progress against recommendations in several areas:

• Support for the Police Race Action Plan, that leads the work behind our commitment of being an anti-racist organisation with community engagement key to the progress being made
• Our Professional Standards control strategy has set specific priorities to tackle sexual misconduct, racism and other forms of discriminatory behaviour which are monitored through scrutiny panels. These panels allow us to check and challenge with internal and external stakeholders these behavioural themes, as well as providing reassurance to community representatives about how these matters are handled.
• A rolling programme of activity to improve standards of behaviour, culture and expectations delivered through roadshows, training and workshops. This includes cultural awareness and ‘upstander’ training and alignment to the national Code of Ethics.
• A specialist force policy in relation to investigating all sexual offences, including so called ‘non-contact offences’ embedding principles of victim-centred, suspect-focused and context-led investigations. This is enhanced by national and local training on ‘non-contact offences’ being delivered across the organisation.
• Embedding key recommendations in relation to initial and ongoing Police vetting and recruitment of officers.
• Through Safer Streets initiatives, we have increased hotspot patrolling through targeted intelligence, ensuring a greater visible Police presence to provide reassurance and opportunities for reporting of offences.
• A dedicated media campaign “KNOW violence against women” dedicated to educating men and women about misogyny and violence against women and girls. It focusses on encouraging men to identify and call out misogynistic, harassing and sexually violent behaviours.

National Policing Culture and Inclusion Strategy 2025-2030

The College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) have developed a five-year culture and inclusion strategy for policing.

The strategy sets the vision for policing to have a representative workforce that is a trusted profession, demonstrating the highest levels of integrity, fairness and respect towards each other and the public we serve.

The strategy is available for police forces to implement from 1 April 2025. It establishes new standards focusing on two interconnected priorities: evolving police organisations and improved working with the public. As part of the strategy there will be practical guidance and tools available to support forces to create lasting cultural change.

The strategy will be owned by a chief officer in each force who will maintain sign-off and oversight of force performance on an annual basis.

The NPCC and College of Policing will work with His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) to enable effective scrutiny of progress against this strategy and the culture and inclusion standard for policing.