Arrested development: the inside story of institutional misogyny in the police

On the day that Claire joined the Metropolitan Police, senior leaders gave a talk reminding new recruits that officers were not legally allowed to sue for unfair dismissal. “Looking back, it’s almost like they were saying: ‘We’re terrible to you. There’s nothing you can do’,” she says. But she still wasn’t prepared for the backlash she would later receive for speaking out against misogyny. 

When Claire later came out as bisexual, “within 10 minutes” a man on her team told her a story about having sex with a “Russian whore”. “I was just like, so you think that because I like women as well as men, now you can just degrade women in front of me?” she says.

The man was given an informal talking to by a senior officer but, two days later, he refused to speak or walk next to Claire when they were sent…