The new chief constable for Avon and Somerset Police has been urged to tackle low prosecution rates for rapes.
Sarah Crew, who became head of the force last November, was pressed on declining conviction rates for violence against women offences earlier this month.
She said increasingly more women are reporting rapes, and a police operation is working with academics to address the problem.
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Mark Shelford, police and crime commissioner for Avon and Somerset, said the prosecution rates for rapes had actually fallen over the past three years, but Ms Crew disputed this.
During a performance and accountability board on May 5, Mr Shelford said: “The statistics around Avon and Somerset on clearing up and prosecuting rape cases are not good. We have seen a decline over the last three years from 10.4% to 8.9%, and Avon and Somerset have a much lower rate of rape offences compared to other forces.
“What are you doing to address that and make sure that we’re doing better?”
Ms Crew replied: “I think those figures actually refer to violence against women more generally. But the conviction rates nationally are not where they need to be. There are a number of things going on there — there’s increased reporting of violence against women and girls offences, and also rape offences. I think that’s a very good thing.
“It does make the percentage of solving more challenging, but that’s a good challenge to have. There’s also increased recording. We have done a massive amount to increase the accuracy of crime recording, and much of that is to be found in the violence against women and girls basket of crimes.”
She added that the police force had maintained prosecution rates on domestic abuse, stalking and harassment, but had “significantly improved” rates for rapes, recently moving to 5.8% — which she described as a “strong position”.
She said: “On rape, we have seen significant improvement. We have moved two percentage points, up to 5.8%, which actually puts us in a strong position nationally. That doesn’t sound good, I know. We have done that through Operation Bluestone, which is a completely new approach to investigating and tackling rape. It’s a recognition that something needs to change.”
Operation Bluestone sees Avon and Somerset Police working with leading academics to improve low conviction rates for rapes and serious sexual offences. The operation includes dedicating a specialist team of trained officers, suspect-based investigations, improved use of data, and better engaging with and involving victims. The force is also working with the Crown Prosecution Service to “rebuild relationships” and speed up prosecuting of rape cases.
Ms Crew said: “What we have done in Avon and Somerset is work with those academics to test ourselves, find areas for improvement, and start to implement them. We’re about halfway down the path of implementing them, because we have to rebuild our specialist capability. And we have to do it in partnership with the Crown Prosecution Service and we have to rebuild some relationships there. But we have done really successfully.
“We see much better early engagement with the Crown Prosecution Service, identifying cases and their strengths and working around them quickly. And now we’re starting to see much more referrals to them for charging decisions and much higher volume of charges.
“While the percentage points sound small, actually in real terms that has doubled over the period that the team has been in place. Such are the green shoots that the Bluestone model is being rolled out in forces around the UK.”
