A four stage campaign to prevent the harassment and abuse of female runners through engagement, education, enforcement, and environment.
| Does it work? |
Untested – new or innovative
|
|---|---|
| Focus |
Diversion
Prevention
|
| Topic |
Anti-social behaviour
Operational policing
Violence against women and girls
|
| Organisation | |
| Contact |
|
| Region |
North East
|
| Partners |
Police
Community safety partnership
Government department
Local authority
|
| Stage of practice |
The practice is implemented.
|
| Start date |
|
| Scale of initiative |
Local
|
| Target group |
Adults
Children and young people
Offenders
|
Aim
To raise awareness that harassment of female runners is not acceptable and will not be tolerated within Bradford.
Intended outcome
The intended outcomes of JogOn are to:
- encourage the reporting of harassment
- increase numbers of people trained as active bystanders
- increase the number of educational inputs on harassment
Description
Harassment of women and girls whilst running has been identified as a national issue and concern. Recognising a national issue has prompted concern from the running community in Bradford. West Yorkshire Police (WYP) established a partnership with the City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council to create an environment where women and girls feel safe and are safe within Bradford, free of fear and harassment.
Community engagement
WYP conducted a review of crime reports and gathered intelligence, with officers attending numerous park runs, running clubs and speaking with community groups. The running community engaged with officers expressing that they felt isolated and did not feel confident to report crimes. Several female runners identified concerns around feeling unsafe, not wanting to run after dark, and provided locations where issues are more prevalent. Male runners also provided examples of harassment they had experienced and were appalled by what they had witnessed. There was clear misunderstanding and behaviours had become the accepted norm, not something they felt the police would either be interested in or be able to take any action against.
In response, WYP and the City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council developed JogOn, a four phase response consisting of:
enforcement
engagement
education
environment
Engagement
Officers continue to attend park runs and running clubs to raise awareness. Park runs are attended by several hundred people every week and is a crucial engagement opportunity.
Development and promotion of the brand JogOn is done by producing posters, banners, t-shirts to raise awareness. These are produced externally and the cost to date is approximately £500, funded by the community safety partnership.
Education
WYP offer active bystander training to runners across the district free of charge and in local areas to maximise the reach. This encourages the running community to challenge undesirable behaviour by empowering people to become active, rather than passive bystanders.
A media strategy has been developed to raise awareness and promote the activity of JogOn. To date, media interviews have been conducted both locally and nationally including on BBC Radio 5 Live and Runner’s World magazine.
Development of the police education (Pol-Ed) programme to teach children and young people about the law, policing and safeguarding.
Creation of a short social media video to show the impact this issue has on victims and the consequences for suspects.
Enforcement
WYP have enforced a public space protection order (PSPO) for anti-social use of motor vehicles. The PSPO enforcement enables the deployment of officers and staff in plain clothes with a marked car in vicinity to act if any offences are witnessed.
WYP also use other anti-social behaviour legislation including criminal protection warnings and criminal protection notices. This would be a tool which could be utilised where offenders are not in vehicles however to date this has not been utilised.
The City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council has developed a developed a reporting mechanism for runners to report instances for retrospective enforcement. Posters contain a QR code which enables direct reporting to Safer Bradford.
Environment
WYP are promoting promote Streetsafe/Walksafe apps to report areas where people feel unsafe/safe.
Utilising environmental visual audits at hotspots to designing out issues.
Overall impact
JogON is in its infancy, however initial feedback from the running community has been overwhelmingly positive.
The media coverage in both locally and national has attracted the attention from other forces, local authorities and NHS trusts who are keen to adopt JogON.
Learning
- It is important to develop a robust media strategy to maxmise the exposure of JogON. The media heavily focused on the phrase “undercover officers” in reporting, which raised concerns within the community. This could have been avoided if prior discussions had been held with relevant authorities.
- It is important to establish engagement with the running community early on, to encourage them to express their concerns and report any crimes.
- It is essential that officers are present at park runs to promote the brand of JogON, and raise awareness about the harassment women and girls face when out running.