Horror stories exposed in sexual harassment review

THEY’RE the harrowing stories they’ve kept secret for their entire careers. Now victims of sexual harassment inside Victoria Police have blown the lid.

‘I’m going to get raped in a police car’

IT was dark and one junior female Victoria Police officer had been out in the patrol car for an hour with the Leading Senior Constable when things began to get weird.

His wife didn’t mind if he had extramarital sex, he told her, before probing her about her personal life. The young police officer was uncomfortable, but felt too scared to challenge her senior colleague for fear of ruining her reputation by being rude.

He kept asking whether she thought having sex with somebody other than your wife was wrong.

To be diplomatic, she said told him it was his business if that worked for his relationship.

But he wouldn’t let up, telling the woman he thought she was the type of girl who would be cool with doing that.

Instead of saying what she really wanted — “You’re a big creep” — she humoured him.

He kept pushing, asking if she was the type of girl who’d be up for it.

He then pulled the car over at a place she describes as secluded for a speeding driver check.

“I was very, very junior, I didn’t know our call sign, where we were or how to use the radio,” she said.

“I felt very vulnerable.”

The Leading Senior Constable then turned to the topic of her sex life.

She knew it was inappropriate but she didn’t want to be labelled a “troublemaker” or be that girl who was a “bitch” to her colleagues.

“That stuff follows women around the force — ‘She’s the one that made a sexual harassment complaint’,” the woman recalls now.

“I definitely tried to mitigate it somehow, I don’t remember how, but just avoid the conversation and change the subject.

“He kept asking me what I would be up for. I think I said, ‘I don’t think that is what I would do, certainly not in a police car’.”

He touched her leg and she tried to move it away. He made a dirty comment about oral sex.

He kept pushing.

The one terrifying thought running through this young policewoman’s mind was “I am going to get raped in a police car. This is not an ideal start to my career.”

When he started touching himself over his clothes, she finally snapped and threatened him with her OC spray.

He responded: “You don’t have to be a bitch about it”.

After being rejected, he drove the car straight back to the police station without another word.

“He completely ignored me. It was gross. It was awful. I didn’t tell anyone I worked with … it was really disempowering,” she said.

The young police officer confided in a senior female colleague a few weeks later.

“She said ‘You need to tell me who it was and I will get him f-----g fired’

“I didn’t tell her — there was too much at stake — there were a lot of men in management and he still seemed pretty well protected.”

She described where she worked as a “hunting ground”.

This is just one of the many horror stories women in Victoria Police have been hiding for decades, with many too scared to speak out against the “boy’s club” culture.

Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner Kate Jenkins with the review into sex discrimination and harassment within Victoria Police. Picture: David Caird.

But a review by the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, ordered by Victoria Police bosses who knew sexual harassment was rife, has exposed the ordeals suffered by women at the hands of their male colleagues — some of them very senior — inside the police force.

Women were called “sluts” and say they were made to feel like a piece of meat.

One woman was even harassed by a top officer on a work-related trip.

“The inspector was in the next room and calling that he was thinking of me and masturbating and ejaculating on the wall between our rooms,” she revealed in the review.

“I was really frightened with all those guys with a gut full of grog.”

Another female recounted how she was slapped on her backside while she was leaning over a filing cabinet, going about her daily work, and another said the harassment was so bad she can’t even look at a police uniform and she shakes when she sees a police car.

Another opened up about the time she was publicly humiliated by her male colleagues.

“I just left. I was so distressed that I had to get away,” she said.

“Driving home, I was in such a state that I seriously considered running myself into a tree.”

Rumours were spread about other women who allegedly “gave a blow job to the boss”.

Women talked about the police force taking away their femininity.

“I am so overly aware and sensitive about how blokes look at me,” one revealed.

“Now I don’t wear shorts, even in my private life. It felt dirty. So obvious.

“I wear everything baggy — I don’t want to be looked at that way.”

The report has exposed the scandalous culture Victoria Police bosses are desperate to bust.

The VEOHRC surveyed almost 5000 Victoria police members, 59 per cent men, 38 per cent women, three per cent gender not disclosed.

It is the largest review into sexual harassment in the workplace in the world, aside from US military studies.

It was discovered only 11 per cent of people who did the survey and who were victims of sexual harassment ever made a formal complaint or report about their experience.

While men are less commonly targeted, the review found gay policemen were six times more likely to be sexually harassed than a heterosexual officer.

In some circumstances, victims would tell their harasser they were uncomfortable, but it would be laughed off and the victim would be undermined.

Victims spoke of how they lost confidence and felt forced to be strong and resilient.

Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner Kate Jenkins commended Victoria Police for facing its demons.

“It’s not a piece of work driven by scandal in the public eye, it was commissioned because police themselves recognised they needed to change,” she said.

Commissioner Jenkins said sexual harassment in the workplace was not isolated to the police force.

“This reflects a serious problem for women and is invisible in so many places,” she said.

“Like police, don’t wait for your own scandal, but take the lead to make changes.”

Victorian Police Commissioner Graham Ashton speaks out about sexual harassment prevalent in the force. Picture: Ian Currie

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton says he is saddened by the horrific experiences some police members endured.

He said the report laid bare the endemic problem within Victoria Police.

“I apologise formally and personally for the discrimination that has occurred to employees, currently serving and past employees, for experiences they’ve gone through,” he said.

“It’s important I say it today and no doubt I’ll say it individually to employees in the months ahead.”

Chief Commissioner Ashton said the issues would be dealt with head on, and victims better supported.

The VEOHRC review has made recommendations to Victoria Police, some of which will be enforced today.

A safe space where victims can go for confidential support will be set up, where they will be able to seek help before making an official complaint.

In the next three to six months, the complaints process will be revamped with the creation of a Workplace Harm Unit.

It will examine complaints and refer them on to the appropriate body for investigation.

This will eliminate the existing process for local management to investigate complaints in their own workplace

Police can now access a Workplace Harm Hotline where referrals and advice can be provided.

Chief Commissioner Ashton said these changes were only a fraction of what needed to be done.

“This means that over the next few years, there will be many changes made to the work environment,” he said.

“The expectations of behaviour will be backed up by clear consequences for those who cannot change and adapt.

“It is going to be challenging. It is going to be difficult. But we will not hide from it.”

Originally published as Horror stories exposed in sexual harassment review