Wrong arm of the law

Eight hundred Met officers are being investigated in relation to 1000 sexual and domestic abuse claims.

- ANDREW ANTHONY

Like many people, the British are not immune to the consolations of schadenfreude, particularly when it comes to the US. However bad things get, we can always find reassurance in the misfortunes of the most powerful nation in the world. Thus reports of American police shooting people - especially black people - tend to inspire not just condemnation, but also the unstated solace that at least things are not that bad at home.

And they're not: black people tend to die more frequently in police custody in the UK than white people, proportionately speaking, and they are certainly stopped and searched at a much higher rate than the general population. But as appalling as the statistics are, there's no real comparison with the lethal threat posed by American police forces.

However, there is one group of people who have become increasingly alarmed about policing in Britain, and that is women. Two years ago, a young woman named Sarah Everard was abducted on the streets of London. It was a shocking incident, made infinitely worse by the discovery a week later of her remains in the countryside south of the capital.