Victims of sexual assault risk being denied justice after the Met police disbanded a specialist sex crimes squad, it was claimed today.
The London Assembly is worried about the closure of the centralised Sapphire team in favour of borough-based “safeguarding” teams.
The teams, in each of the 12 multi-borough “basic command units”, investigate child abuse, sexual offences and domestic violence.
As sexual assault claims increase the assembly says victims are waiting months for updates on investigations because officers have a more varied workload. This may discourage victims from coming forward.
Writing to Sophie Linden, the deputy mayor for policing, the assembly’s police committee chairman Unmesh Desai said the model “may be compounding the issue”.
He said: “Officers that would have dealt with rape offences under the previous model now also deal with all sexual offences... Officers working on sexual offence and rape investigations often must stop their work.”
A spokesman for the Mayor said: “We have stepped in to provide additional sustained investment of £15 million to tackle this issue.”
