“He should never have been a police officer”: in among all the grim details of the Angiolini Report into the police failures that led to Sarah Everard’s appalling murder, these were the words that hit to the core. The words that were the hardest to read for us all.

Because, as Sarah’s family notes, why else would she have got in the car?

The abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard shattered public faith in the police, and this week, the glaring flaws in one of our most important institutions have been laid bare. The institution that is entrusted with our protection derives its legitimacy from public consent.

I won’t pretend that this report isn’t profoundly worrying for women up and down the country – that a man with a history of sexual violence against women was ever allowed to serve in our police.

This report underscores the urgent need for systemic change in policing and society. 

We knew this day was coming, and we have not waited for the report to act. We cannot allow another monster like Couzens to serve as a police officer. We asked the National Police Chiefs’ Council to carry out the largest-ever screening of all serving officers and we’re providing funding to roll out automated intelligence checks on everyone working in policing.

We are also bringing in changes to make sure that officers found guilty of gross misconduct are automatically dismissed. Simultaneously, we are granting new powers to chief officers to root out officers who are unfit to serve.

We recognise that it is not enough to spot misfeasance. We need to embed best practice.

That is why we have instructed police to treat violence against women as a national threat. That means that they must treat it as seriously as organised crime, terrorism or child sexual abuse.

We’ve also introduced the first-ever national policing lead: Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth, whose job is specifically to reduce violence against women.

This is only on top of new training for thousands of officers on how to investigate rape and identify domestic abuse, and investing millions of pounds to make our streets safer through localised schemes of extra lighting and CCTV in places like parks and alleyways.

We are clear that out of the tragic loss of Sarah Everard, there must be genuine, deep-rooted, long-lasting change across our society.

There has already been significant progress in the last three years, but the job is far from done. This report is a clarion call to all of us in government of the profound failings that led to Sarah’s death. We treat it with the absolute humility it deserves and a cast-iron commitment that no woman will be let down in the same way again.

Images: Getty