She has also written a book with colleagues titled Policing Domestic Abuse – Risk, Policy & Practice published by Routledge in November 2022. Katy continues to work academically in this field, now focussing on adolescent domestic abuse in a research partnership with the VISION consortium at City University, London.

Katy is always keen to develop the Force’s understanding and learning from the academic work being completed by officers and staff, and as a result, instigated the ‘TVP Journal’ which is a fantastic gateway to recognise the academic work of officers and staff. Following the success of the TVP Journal Katy was asked to be the Editor in Chief of the College of Policing Publication ‘Going Equipped’ .

Katy also leads on @WeCops a twitter debate forum on current police issues in the UK. In 2024 Katy was the runner-up in the World Policing Summit awards in Dubai in the category of Inspirational Female Police Officer.

As the Thames Valley Police lead for Violence Against Women and Girls I am privileged to launch It Does Matter, our campaign which encourages people to report non-contact sexual offences in conjunction with Lisa Squire.

In light of the tragic murders of Libby Squire, Sarah Everard, and Zara Aleena, all of whom were victims of men with histories of non-contact sexual offending, the importance of addressing these crimes is being increasingly recognised. Research is underway both nationally and locally at Thames Valley Police to better understand and combat these offences, as well as having a laser focus on the men who commit these crimes.

For this campaign, Thames Valley Police have worked with education and public health campaign specialists, TMC, a communications agency who have developed the branding, created a new website and designed our marketing materials. 

A video, which features our target audience of 18-24 year olds telling their own experiences of non-contact sexual offences, has been shared across social media and features prominently on the new website, helping us to share the real world impact of these offences and encouraging everyone to report them. 

We have been working closely with our Higher Education partners across the force, with events at multiple universities, including welcome events and fresher fairs and we have even more lined up through October and November. Here, we have had the opportunity to engage directly with students to raise awareness and understanding of what non-contact offences are.    

We were honoured to be joined by Lisa Squire for these events, a passionate campaigner whose daughter, Libby, went missing in 2019, with her body later found in the Humber Estuary.  Libby was a student from Wycombe studying at University in Hull. Libby was tragically raped and murdered by an offender who had a history of committing non-contact offences prior to her death. 

Students spoke to Lisa to understand the campaign's importance, providing a deeper connection to the message and the call to action for everyone to speak up, stand together and stay safe.  

A series of media interviews took place throughout the launch week to share our messages that It Does Matter even wider.

Lisa and I conducted live TV interviews took place on ITVs Good Morning Britain (GMB) and Sky News’ Breakfast programmes, providing Thames Valley Police with the national platforms to lead the way on this topic, as we work to build trust with survivors and encourage more people to come forward and report. 

Additionally, interviews took place with BBC Radio 1, 1Xtra and Asian Network’s Newsbeat, which broadcasts to 18-24 year olds across the country about issues that matter to them.

We are both looking forward to coming to the Brookes University VAWG conference in November.