PCC who quit over Everard comments starts charity

The police boss who resigned over remarks he made about women's safety in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard has launched a whistleblowing charity.

Philip Allott was North Yorkshire's Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC) in 2021 but eventually stood down after saying women "need to be streetwise" about police powers of arrest during a BBC radio interview.

He made the comments after it emerged serving Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens had used his warrant card to falsely arrest Ms Everard, originally from York, for breaching coronavirus guidelines.

Five years later, Allott said he had gone through a "period of reflection".

He has now launched the charity Blue Light Whistle Blowers, which aims to enable emergency services personnel to raise concerns anonymously.

The Conservative commissioner had faced multiple calls to stand down over a period of two weeks in 2021 after he told BBC Radio York that women should educate themselves, saying they should know "when they can be arrested and when they can't be arrested".

Couzens was given a whole life sentence for abducting, raping and murdering Ms Everard.

"When you go through the drama of resigning, you go through a period of reflection and part of that was to actually reach out to the Everard family," Allott said.

"I went along there personally to apologise to them and they were very gracious about that.

"They blame one person and one person only, a Metropolitan Police officer, for the murder of their daughter."

Allott said he had given a "bad interview" but was reflecting the guidance being given at the time.

"If you recall, the prime minister said, if you're a woman and you're concerned, flag a bus down.

"How do you do that in North Yorkshire where there's maybe one service a day?

"The advice coming out from government was poor and it was the commissioner herself, Cressida Dick, that was saying challenge authority of officers."

Allott said Baroness Casey's 2023 review of culture in the Met had been "extremely damning".

"It showed that within the police, there was misogyny, there was racism, there was homophobia and a lot of it was dismissed as banter," he explained.

"The truth is people know what's going on but there isn't an opportunity for them to speak up."

The charity, which is non-political, works with the emergency services to provide an anonymous outlet for people to talk.

"Wayne Couzens committed two acts of gross indecency and that was never properly investigated and picked up," Allott said.

"Had that been dealt with and properly reported, maybe anonymously, it could have been solved but there was no outlet to do that.

"As a police officer, you have to go on the record with Professional Standards and you put your career on the line, as well as the person you're reporting and it's very similar with fire and rescue."

However, he said the charity worked by speaking with whistleblowers via an anonymous hotline or receiving an online form from them.

Any information was then flagged to the HR department or Professional Standards, avoiding the potential indiscretion of line managers.

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