2 days ago
What are the punishments for catcalling? Police officers pose as runners to tackle harassment
Surrey police said one of their plainclothes officers was catcalled within 10 minutes of starting their run.
Female police officers in Surrey have been jogging in plainclothes to catch out catcallers in part of a wider attempt to clamp down on violence against women.
The Jog On campaign from Surrey sees the officers, who have volunteered to run, contact support teams if they are victims of catcalling.
A support team will then try and talk to the perpetrators and advise them against such behaviour.
They said the tactic has been used in Reigate and Banstead but is now being rolled out elsewhere.
Inspector Jon Vale said their research shows catcalling is significantly underreported, with almost half of women not getting in touch with police when they were catcalled.
He said: "To date, we have made a number of interventions following reports of harassment of our plainclothes runners. In these cases, it was deemed appropriate to provide education around anti-social behaviour.
'For repeat offenders or where the behaviour is more serious, we will robustly pursue all criminal justice outcomes."
Vale told LBC: '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."
PC Abi Hayward, who was one of the officers taking part in the trial, said she was a keen runner said she felt "diminished" and "uncomfortable" whenever she was catcalled.
She said: "It makes me feel uneasy, and then instantly it's just ruined my run."
What is catcalling?
Catcalling is the act of shouting something sexually suggestive to another person. It is usually done by a man directed at a woman.
It is a form of harassment, and more often than not, the people involved have never interacted before in their lives.
It can be extremely uncomfortable for someone to experience, especially when the catcaller is part of a wider group shouting at a woman on her own.
The phrase was first used to describe people who jeered and made disapproving sounds towards theatre performers in the 1600s, but over time, it took on more sexual connotations.
Is catcalling a crime?
There is no direct law that makes catcalling illegal, but someone who catcalls may be charged with harassment under certain circumstances.
In 2023, the government passed a bill that updated laws around harassment to include street harassment as a specific crime for the first time.
The specific crime of street harassment was created to encourage more people report when they think they've been a victim of the crime.
The new rules criminalised:
Deliberately walking closely behind someone as they walk home at night
Making obscene or aggressive comments towards a person
Making obscene or offensive gestures towards a person
Obstructing a person's path
Driving or riding a vehicle slowly near to a person making a journey
In the wake of the Sarah Everard murder, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) also tightened its guidance on street harassment in 2022.
The CPS says in the specific instance of verbal harassment, rather than physical assault, people can be charged under two circumstances.
If the intention is to cause (and thereby causing) harassment, alarm, or distress to a specific victim by words or behaviour.
Or, a less serious incident of sexually threatening or abusive words or behaviour, or disorderly behaviour directed towards a stranger in public.
How widespread is the problem?
A study published by the University of Manchester in 2024 found that two-thirds of women have experienced harassment while running.
The survey, which focused on women in the north east of England, found just 5% of victims reported it to the police.
And 68% of the survey respondents said they had experienced some form of abusive behaviour.
The most common type was verbal abuse, with 58% of the women who responded reporting that they had experienced this. However, a substantial number of women also said they had been followed while out running (19%), flashed at (7%), or received other types of abuse from men in vehicles (13%).
And 82% of them said they were worried about their personal safety when running.
One of the women who took part in the survey told The Guardian that when she was on one run, she was followed by a group of "10-year-olds on bikes" who made extremely offensive sexual comments about her.
The woman, who only identified as Lucy, said: "What shocked me was that these children had learned this behaviour and thought it was totally OK to do this. It was daytime. At the time, I thought I was OK, but I stopped running shortly after … it made me feel pretty unsafe."
How many people have been arrested?
Surrey police said they had not arrested anyone specifically in relation to the Jog On campaign, as it was being implemented as a "preventative measure".
A spokesperson told Yahoo News UK: "We have used these interactions to educate individuals on how this behaviour can make a woman or girl feel and the consequences, in an effort to prevent future behaviour occurring."
They said they had made 18 arrests overall in their increased efforts to tackle violence against women and girls, incorporating other tactics such as the use of plain clothes officers to tackle harassment in nighttime economy venues such as pubs and clubs.
Exact figures on how many arrests specifically relating to street harassment are hard to come by.
But in a Freedom of Information request in 2023, Dorset Police said they had made 138 arrests relating to the changes to the CPS's advice on street harassment in a 12-month period.
Of these, 96 of the arrests related to "intentional Harassment, alarm or distress.
What are the punishments?
When the specific laws for street harassment were introduced, the punishments were increased from six months to two years' jail time.
Stylist reported in 2022 that a man was issued a £100 fine for catcalling in Ilford, believed to be the first time someone was punished in the UK specifically for the offence.
