• Put off making your statement until you have rested, had your medical check or arranged for someone to be with you
• Have a friend, family member or support worker with you the whole time you are there, even while making a police statement
• Be given written information about your rights and organisations or places that may be able to help you
• Have a woman police officer from the sexual offences and child abuse unit(SOCA) take your statement and if there is no policewoman there at the time, you can ask for one to be brought in from another station
• Be kept informed of the progress of the police investigation
• Be given information about the law and what might happen in court
• Not sign anything unless you are completely happy with it ... if you think it's not written in the right way you can change it or add things to it that you might have forgotten earlier
• Have an interpreter assist you if English is not your first language
• Have your statement tape recorded rather that written down - this is a much quicker way of doing it, but not always possible. You should also receive a copy of your signed statement as soon as possible after the statement has been made
• Change your mind about making a statement and leave the police station at any time
• Ask the police for written reasons for any decisions they make about your case; for example, if they decide not to investigate
• Ask the Office of Public Prosecutions, which is the official organisation that deals with these things, to look at your case if you are not happy with what the police have decided
• Make a 'statement of no complaint'; this means that you have told the police and they have recorded it, but that you didn't want anything else to happen. In a small number of cases the police may continue to investigate
• Make a complaint about how you have been treated by the police

Return To Top Of Page
Home