Ever been stared at on the train? Felt up? Pressed against? Followed? Then this advert is for you. It shows the escalating stages of a man harassing the woman and Olivia Colman, narrating, asks at each turn, ‘Would you report it?’ You can watch it here:
If you can’t watch right now, the man begins staring at the woman, the woman goes onto the carriage, he brushes up against her. Eventually, he’s swiping his finger on her bum, then grabbing it. Each step of the way, Olivia’s voice asks: ‘Would you report it?’ and ‘Yes/No’ comes up on the screen.
Just as the man shoves his groin into her bum, the woman rushes off of the tube, gets to street level, gets her phone out and sends a text.
The narrator states: ‘Ninety per cent of unwanted sexual behaviour on public transport goes unreported. You can report anything that makes you feel uncomfortable. Report it to stop it’ and a text-in number, 61016 flashes up on the screen.
It’s co-signed by TFL, the Mayor of London, the Metropolitan Police, British Transport Police and City of London Police as part of Project Guardian, and we’re really pleased they’ve come together to support and encourage women to report assaults. But we wanted to know: why the focus is on women reporting harassment, instead of men not harassing in the first place?
So we spoke to Richard Mann, detective superintendent with British Transport Police who is the Safeguarding Programme Leader: ‘It felt like this is a good place to start. I’m conscious that we’re not placing any responsibility on the victim, ie the female, because it’s not their problem. It is a male problem because most of the offenders are males.
‘But to help us tackle it, we do need the intelligence and the information from reports.’
Not only are they trying to get victims to report, but they’re trying to get other commuters – who all too frequently distract themselves with papers or Kindles or phones – to not just turn a blind eye when things go awry: ‘We’re also trying to encourage other transport users to support people if they see it happening to somebody else and report it.’
He says that offenders can be identified, especially from repeat behaviour and then potentially charged: ‘They tend to behave in a very distinctive way prior to committing an offence so they can be spotted if they’re there in the right area at the right time.’
After that? They can be interviewed and so the authorities can get to the bottom of why on earth they did it, and so learn how to stop potential harassers: ‘We’re proposing to do more detailed post-conviction questioning of offenders to see what the triggers or causes were.’
The British Transport Police realised that this sort of campaign was necessary after consulting with researchers and women’s groups: ‘Less than 10% of cases are reported. Victims don’t know what to report, or what language to use. Or they wanted to move on, forget about it because it’s awkward or because they think “It happens and it’s normal”. There was a lack of faith in the system, that they’d be seen [by police] as a time waster. The campaign is trying to address most of those issues.’
The advert sets about to ensure victims that: ‘The police will get it – victims will be taken seriously, they will be believed, they will be treated seriously they will be treated sensitively, empathetically they’re not going to be driven down the criminal justice route if they don’t want to do that’
And other practical measures to stop harassment? TFL are eventually making tubes carriages more open and police are getting sexual harassment training. So far 2,000 British Transport Police officers have been trained.
While Dt Mann admits the cost – 10p to text in, 15p per minute to call 101, potential charges if the British Transport Police’s phone hotline (0800 50 40 50) is called from a mobile – might need to be addressed, he says the ‘nominal fee’ could be there to make sure ‘young people aren’t abusing it’. In the meantime, we’ll point you to 61016@btp.pnn.police.uk, an email address which might be less expensive to report to.
Laura Bates, from Everyday Sexism told The Debrief: ‘It’s vital that we focus on tackling perpetrators and not mandating any woman’s individual response to harassment, but I think it’s important to let people know they can report these things if they want to and that they will be supported and believed.
‘The video sends a clear message that nothing is too “minor” to report and victims will be taken seriously and supported by police if they feel able to come forward. It would also be great to see more public facing materials specifically targeting perpetrators, but I think this video is a positive part of the wider effort BTP have put in to dealing with the problem.’
Bryony Beynon, from Hollaback! agrees, telling The Debrief that while there is a wider job to be done, TFL’s campaign is a step in the right direction: ‘Of course, in reality, reporting it won’t “stop it” – not without a wider societal change around attitudes to women’s body as public property, which is a much bigger job that we should all play a part in, especially when it comes to bystander intervention.
‘But overall we are really happy with the message and tone of it is very much geared around letting women know that they can report easily and safely, no matter what happened, and that above all they will be taken seriously.’
It’s a shame that women haven’t been believed for so long, so in a way it’s great that there are steps being taken to tackle sexual harassment on public transport. We’re just also really looking forward to the day sexual harassers are told just how horrific their behaviour can be.
Like this? You might also be interested in:
Meet The Women Leading Exeter Uni’s impressive #NeverOK Campaign Against Sexual Harassment On Campus
Egyptian Hashtag Game #WeWillHarassMen Flips Sexual Harassment On Its Stupid Head
So A Third Of Female Students Have Been Sexually Assaulted? What’s Being Done About It?
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.