Police forces across England and Wales have been ordered not to issue fixed penalty notices in stalking and harassment cases.
The edict comes from the police watchdog the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) and comes after murder victim Shana Grice was fined for wasting police time before she was killed by her ex-boyfriend after he spent months stalking and harassing her.
On Thursday the IOPC published its final report into how officers handled her complaints before she died.
Grice, 19, was murdered at her home in Brighton on August 25 2016. She had reported her former boyfriend to police five times in six months but was fined for wasting officers’ time after it emerged she initially failed to disclose the pair had previously been in a relationship.
The case was closed before her pleas for help were properly investigated.
Grice’s family said the murder could have been prevented if officers had taken their daughter’s complaints seriously.
A judge later said police “jumped to conclusions” and “stereotyped” Grice for not thinking a woman in a relationship could not also be abused by that partner. Lane was subsequently jailed for a minimum of 25 years.
As well as issuing national guidelines to all police forces, the IOPC made a raft of recommendations to Sussex Police - telling it to properly train staff, improve risk assessments, communicate better and use systems correctly.
The College of Policing and National Police Chiefs Council have also been told to get forces to make sure officers and staff have the skills to do their jobs properly when investigating crime.