Sue Fish, the former chief constable of Nottinghamshire Police, has stepped down from a role following backlash from her family. Fish, who retired in 2017, now runs a consultancy campaigning on women's safety and has been a vocal critic of misogyny in policing.
Fish experienced two indecent assaults during her career, including one by a senior officer while she was an inspector and another by a fellow senior officer while she was an assistant chief constable. She did not report the first incident, feeling 'humiliated and stupid'.
In 2016, Fish became the first chief constable to record misogyny as a hate crime, a move she describes as a powerful message that such behaviour is unacceptable. After retiring, she contributed to a paper proposing a national rollout of the scheme, but says it was blocked by Sara Thornton and Cressida Dick.
Fish joined the police in 1986 and faced sexism from the start, including a chief constable who disliked employing married women. She says a significant minority of officers are attracted to policing for the power and potential to abuse it, and that the erosion of trust in police to protect women is something she has felt for years.
