Dr Aisha K Gill CBE is a professor of criminology at Roehampton University, who specialises in criminal justice responses to violence against Black, minority ethnic and refugee (BMER) women in the UK. “Positive, effective responses from the police [in cases of violence against women] are often a postcode lottery – or even a matter of which officer a victim encounters,” she tells Stylist. “Such changes require investment, commitment and accountability.”

Individuals need to feel “safe in reporting”, Dr Gill continues. “Victims and survivors want to be believed by the police. They want to feel confident that, when they access the criminal justice system, their rights will be protected… That’s a practical reality of what women and girls want in our communities.”

ONS survey data indicates that 75% of people in England and Wales had confidence in their local police in the year ending March 2019. But given that two Metropolitan Police officers were suspended last summer after allegedly taking selfies next to the dead bodies of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman, and that an officer with West Midlands Police was just spared jail after drunkenly attacking a woman on the street, it’s understandable that some people don’t believe true police reform is possible. Sisters Uncut and Our Streets Now are both ultimately in favour of defunding and abolishing the police.

However, Bates notes that the British Transport Police (BTP) successfully overhauled its approach to sexual harassment and assault allegations in collaboration with the Everyday Sexism Project, the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW) and Hollaback UK, resulting in a 32% increase in detections of perpetrators of sexual offences on public transport.

“They did it by completely centring survivors, working with expert organisations and retraining the police, and it was absolutely transformative,” she says. “So it can be done, it’s just that the political will isn’t there.”

“Investment, commitment, accountability”: after Sarah Everard, what will actually keep women safe in public spaces?