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Female plain clothes police officers in England jogged through areas identified as harassment hot spots then proceeded to arrest the worst of the cat-callers. The trial task force, which lasted about a month, resulted in 18 arrests.
During the trial, created by the Surrey Police Department, two undercover female police officers first went out jogging at rush hour. It didn’t take very long for the female cops to be harassed.
It took just 10 minutes
“One of our officers was honked at within 10 minutes — then another vehicle slowed down, beeping and making gestures just 30 seconds later — that’s how frequent it is,” inspector Jon Vale told the Telegraph. “Someone slowing down, staring, shouting – even if it’s not always criminal – it can have a huge impact on people’s everyday lives and stops women from doing something as simple as going for a run. We have to ask, is that person going to escalate? Are they a sexual offender? We want to manage that risk early.”
One of the female undercover joggers, officer Abby Hayward told the Telegraph, “We get catcalled. We get honked at. People slow down just to stare — or lean out the window to shout something. It’s so common, but it’s harassment and it needs to be recognized as such. This behavior is either a precursor to something more serious — or it’s ignorance and it’s fixable. That’s where our interventions come in: to stop potential repeat offenders or help people understand that what they’re doing isn’t okay.”
Over the month-long trial, the Surrey Police Department said it made 18 arrests for offenses such as harassment, sexual assault, and theft.
The task force was not without its detractors, however. The Free Speech Union, which says it champions “the right of people from all walks of life to express themselves without fear of punishment or persecution,” called the tactics “bizarre social-psychology experiments” and suggested that the police would be better served enforcing existing laws.
Will it ever stop?
“These behaviors may not be criminal offenses in themselves, but they need to be addressed,” a Surrey Police spokesman told the Telegraph in the department’s defense.
Five years ago, the Telegraph published an article in which an international children’s charity in the United Kingdom reported 66 percent of girls aged 14 to 21 have experienced unwanted sexual attention or harassment in public.
The woman who wrote the article said “being cat-called by a group of men” while jogging was pretty much “a weekly occurrence.” When she wrote about her experience on Twitter, she said dozens of women told her similar stories.
“I think it’s time we addressed street harassment at its root, with the perpetrators held to account,” she suggested. Perhaps the Surrey Police Department is just listening, finally.