By: Tilly Grove, London, UK, SSH Correspondent
As a student at a London university, the city’s transport system is something I use daily during term time. Consequently, I stand alongside the 15 per cent of women who responded to a Transport for London (TfL) survey and reported that they had experienced some form of sexual harassment or assault on the London transport network. In fact, I consider myself to stand alongside a much larger percentage of women. That 15 per cent is only of the women who responded to the survey, and only those who felt comfortable talking about what had happened to them in the first place. Often, women do not even realise that what has occurred to them is sexual harassment. Either way, 90 per cent of the women in that survey said that they had not reported what happened to them to the police, and TfL have rightly identified that this is a huge problem.
Project Guardian is the initiative that seeks to change that. The British Transport Police (BTP), working closely with TfL, Metropolitan Police and the City of London Police, have recognised that sexual harassment on public transport is a major concern for travellers, and vastly under-reported. Having studied a similar exercise in Boston, and with guidance from women’s campaign groups like the End Violence Against Women coalition, Everyday Sexism, and Hollaback London, Project Guardian will see all 2,000 of the officers working on the public transport network receive training in victim awareness, and selected officers given extra training on sexual offences courses.
The core aim of Project Guardian is to increase awareness of sexual offences, and encourage victims to come forward. By clearly outlining what constitutes a sexual offence, the BTP are taking a good first step. A lot of women – myself included – will likely not have been aware, for example, that any comments or actions that make them uncomfortable on their journeys constitute harassment. When I have had men actively stalk me across platforms and through carriages, or make obvious efforts to stare up my skirt, or make sexually charged comments about my appearance, I would certainly never have thought that this was something I should report, and not just something I had to shrug off. The BTP insists that any offence of this nature will be taken “extremely seriously”, and urges anyone who has witnessed or experienced something to come forward.
While not the primary objective of the initiative, a reduction in instances of sexual assault would certainly be desirable too, as has been seen in Boston. Project Guardian seeks to deter offenders by deploying up to 180 officers to stations at a time, using undercover officers, creating a high police profile at vulnerable times and places (like quiet stations late at night), working in partnership with railway businesses, using CCTV footage, and publishing details of all successful prosecutions. Judging by the figures from its first week, it might be set for success: reporting of sexual offences increased by 26%, and 10 arrests were made. This may see the initiative rolled out elsewhere across Britain.
The Twitter hashtag #ProjGuardian illustrates clearly that experiences of sexual harassment are not a rarity, and not a one-off. There are thousands of women sharing their stories, all of them demonstrating that this has become an accepted part of our experiences as women in public. Even when it is not physically happening to us, the possibility of it is always hanging over us. If Project Guardian can change one thing, it can change the idea amongst so many of us that it has to be this way, that we must be silent and accept it. Ideally, it will change more than that. When Ellie Cosgrave had a man ejaculate on her on the train, she took matters into her own hands and put on a brilliant and intelligent protest, Take Back the Tube; she did this because she had reported it to TfL, who did not even respond. Women deserve more than this. We deserve organisations that listen to us and take us seriously, and most importantly, we deserve to be able to use the public transport network without constant fear and anticipation of someone violating us in the first place. Let’s hope Project Guardian is the start of that.
To report sexual offences to the British Transport Police, talk to staff or officers at the station, text 61016, or call 0800 40 50 40.
Tilly is studying for a BA in War Studies at King’s College London, where she is writing her dissertation on the effect that perceptions of gender have on the roles which women adopt in conflict. You can follow her on Tumblr and Twitter, @tillyjean_.
