Thames Valley Police took formal action on just under 7% – one in 14 – of reported rapes over the last year.
A new drive to change the way forces investigate rape was rolled out across England and Wales this week.
Operation Soteria seeks to implement measures designed to shift investigations’ focus on to suspects’ behaviour rather than victims or survivors.
Figures published by Thames Valley Police show the force took formal action on 149 of the 2,220 – 6.7% – rape cases it recorded between June 2022 and May 2023.
In Reading, officers took formal action on 15 reported rapes out of 242 – 6.1%, while in Bracknell and Wokingham, Thames Valley Police took formal action on 14 reported rapes out of 180 – 7.7%.
Detective Superintendent Stu Bosley, Thames Valley Police’s Head of Rape and Sexual Offences, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the force was seeking to improve its prosecution rate.
“No one in the police is pretending that 6.7 per cent is a good outcome rate. We need to improve that,” he said. “We are starting to show signs of improvement.
“We’re seeing much closer cooperation with the Crown Prosecution Service, and much better conviction rates.”
The End Violence Against Women Coalition welcomed Operation Soteria’s aim to shift the focus of rape investigations onto the actions of the suspect. But said that improving rape prosecutions requires a change in the culture of police forces – including addressing institutional misogyny.
Coalition director Andrea Simon said: “It still remains the case that the vast majority of rape survivors don’t report to the police, and the majority who do will leave the system altogether due to the barriers to justice they find themselves up against.”
DSI Bosley said it would be “naive” to claim that there were no issues with misogyny in Thames Valley Police. But he added that the force was working internally “to address any misogyny in our offices.”
He added: “If you are a victim of sexual offences please report it to us. We will listen to you and we will investigate.”
