Police have stopped dozens of men for harassment, stalking, and loitering in the streets as part of a crackdown on predatory behaviour across Bucks.
Project Vigilant is an operation run across the Thames Valley protecting women and girls from violence and sexual harassment in the night-time economy.
The force has revealed that between July 2021 and March 2022, 201 men were stopped across the Thames Valley as part of Project Vigilant. One in five of the men stopped had prior links to offending against women or girls.
In total, 27 me were stopped for harassment, stalking and unwanted behaviour towards women and 37 men were stopped loitering near places where sexual offending was known to have taken place.
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Officers made a total of six arrests as part of the operation for sexual offending and harassing behaviour.
Detective Chief Inspector James Senior, force tactical lead for Project Vigilant, said: “I hope that this sends a clear message to potential offenders that this behaviour is not tolerated and we want to make the Thames Valley a hostile place for those that may be thinking of committing an offence.
“In addition, we have even more officers trained in detecting predatory behaviour which will increase our deployments across the force.
“The operation aims to build public confidence, particularly in women being able to make reports to us, and we have had instances across the force where women have approached officers after they have intervened to report domestic abuse and sexual offending.”
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Over recent months, Project Vigilant has received funding from the Home Office Safety of Women at Night scheme, using the money to recruit a dedicated Sergeant to co-ordinate Project Vigilant in the Thames Valley.
The funding has also meant that 95 officers could be trained in behavioural detection – helping to further detect and prevent predatory behaviour.
Officers have also started working with the British Transport Police to run joint operations on the railway network in the Thames Valley.
British Transport Police Chief Inspector John Angell said: “Project Vigilant has already seen some really promising results, and we hope by teaming up with Thames Valley Police and adopting some of these successful tactics, we’ll create a hostile environment for offenders.
“We encourage anyone who experiences or witnesses any form of sexual harassment on the railway to report it to us by texting 61016.
“No report is small or trivial and we will always take you seriously. Each report we receive provides us with valuable information which we can use to build a picture of an offender. Often it allows us to notice a pattern of offending behaviour and we will take action.”
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