That the Met's suggestion of 'flagging down a bus' if feeling unsafe with a lone officer is an absolute joke

[hereforfun]

Apologies if there's already been a thread on this topic as I haven't seen one.

The Met police have also suggested that women should shout out to a passer by, run away and knock on doors or call 999 if they feel unsafe about being in the presence of a lone officer. The same applies if someone was to doubt the genuinity of a police officer.

I live and have grown up in South London where most bus drivers are known for being unhelpful/unfriendly. A lot of bus drivers will even drive past you without stopping the bus when you've signaled the bus to stop.
I couldn't even imagine being in an uncomfortable situation with the police and a bus driver stopping to see what's going on or offer their help. Also, if a bus driver was to stop after being flagged down, what is it exactly that they're meant to do?

As for running away and going to knock on doors asking for help I can only imagine this is some sort of joke? Many (not all, but many) police officers tend to use excessive force in situations where it's uncalled for. I would never in a million years think to run away even if I am seeking help, because many police officers would use that as a reason to use excessive force.

Lastly, I think it's ridiculous how the advice given focuses on ways women can keep themselves safe in situations as opposed to the Met coming up with ways to keep women safe.
Just a little rant about something that's been on my mind for a few days, what are your thoughts?

One evil individual, who I have no doubt would have found a way to commit a crime no matter what his job, does not represent us all.

The 'one bad apple' claim doesn't hold water when one of his colleagues was also in court recently charged with rape. The 'one bad apple' claim doesn't explain the Whatsapp group of misogyny does it? And we all saw how they treated women at the vigil.

Or this uk.news.yahoo.com/twenty-six-met-colleagues-wayne-095544850.html 26 officers!

One of the things the police need to do is absolutely avoid the 'one bad apple' claim because that will only further damage trust in a police force that has clearly a much bigger problem than that.

Baroness Casey is leading the review into the Met.
Last week on radio 4 she said (hopefully I've got it right)
'The idea the police can work our way out of this is unfair on them they need all of us to help them battle this and that includes a much braver government when it comes to this issue
We’re too frightened to, I think, accept that this is a major issue within our society. I think it comes to something much more profound ……….. and it comes to men and women, and It’s fair gain to think that this is acceptable for women and would not be acceptable for men.
If men were murdered by women one every 3 days in this country, if we had men on the receiving end of rape we wouldn’t have the most extraordinary lack of prosecutions, I’m not often this forthright but this is the truth.'

@Biancadelrioisback

It's the same old story. Telling women to have back up plans/be aware/make changes to their routines rather than telling men not a rape and murder us.

This is exactly it!

Let’s give men an app

One that flashes up every 5 minutes. “Do not murder women” “ If you see a woman, do not rape her”

Etc

"If you cannot prevent yourself from raping a woman, take a friend with you who can keep an eye on you. Safety in numbers".

Hmm, so how does this work outside of London or other cities/towns then? I live rurally, we see maybe 2 buses a day here and certainly none at night! Long stretches of country lanes with no houses nearby to run to for help etc! I actually got picked up by 2 male police officers walking home late one night, they were nice and worried about me walking late at night down such an isolated road and they dropped me home, but I guess there'd have been bugger all I could have done had that not been the case!

The Met has launched a pilot scheme called StreetSafe where you can report places you have felt unsafe.
I was followed on Thursday night and felt threatened. I was still worried about it on Friday but wasn't sure it warranted a call to 101. While I was googling to see if I could report by email or text StreetSafe came up so I logged the incident. I had a text from the Met very quickly making an appointmeny for Sunday morning. Unfortunately it didn't specify where or how this will happen. I assume they'll phone me but they have my address so possibly they're going to turn up here.

An app won't stop a woman actually being raped. Might possibly mean we find their bodies quicker, so there's that..

@Toomanyradishes

I can imagine a senario at some point: woman is scared of lone officer, runs for help to the nearest house, where there happens to live a man who assaults her. Cue police and press blaming the wman who should have trusted the police officer and should have known better than to ask strange men for help....

As for the bus drivers, they have a job to do, expecting them to step in because some of the police force is corrupt is ridiculous, and completely unfair. They stop the bus and then what? Wait with the woman until another officer arrives, and risk being sacked for not doing their job? Risk getting into trouble with the police themselves for helping someone 'resist arrest'

This whole thing is just fucked up

Exactly this. It seems like a Catch 22, damned if you and damned if you don't.

As for the bus drivers I agree 100%. Is this something that will be now implemented in their contracts or will they face repercussions because they're doing something other than their job. Why should the responsibility fall on bus drivers instead of starting with the police force?

@PartyStory

They need to change the law so that they require two officers for arrests, like in Scotland. It won’t mean something like this can never happen but it will be a lot less likely. I can’t see any other possible solutions (and clearly neither can they if flagging down a bus is the solution offered).

I never knew this is the law in Scotland but this is great and would definitely be a start

@PattiPritell

Well I suppose this was a response to the sara everard situation - and as Baroness Casey said on radio 4 that this is a societal issue and expecting the police to fix it is wrong. Most likely because they can't. I guess teh meT were attempting to come up with some sort if ideas - none of which really work if the man is stronger than you. The suggestions which weren't likely to help much prove that whingeing and complaining about the police is providing a nice get out clause for the Gov - oh those useless cops, can't stop men killing women every other day. The police can arrest the killers but if the judiciary give pathetic sentences or dont' even try to prosecute due to lack of evidence then a million police won't fix the problem.

I think by hide bounding the police into pratting around helping would be arrestees make phone calls, check their collar number etc etc it will just make making arrests much harder.
If there's a gang whilst assisting one member to make a call to wherever to check the credentials of the several police officers the others could run off.

This isn't the police's fault. But hey let's not get men to change their mysogynistic ways - just blame the cops.

@PattiPritell as @noblegiraffe said 'we should at least expect the police to fix the police issue.' @Mumoblue also raised a similar point saying, 'the Met need to address the issues within the police.'

I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the police to come up with a solution or a statement explaining what the police intend to do to regain trust in them. A start needs to be made somewhere and it should start with some accountability at the very least

And then they charge you with resisting arrest.

Apart from anything else, by the time a bus passed me , I'd already be dead and the murderer would have had time to bloody dig a grave and bury me!

@IfIHadAHeart there's no doubt that one individual does not represent all police officers as whole. However there has been a lack of trust in the police force for years, especially from those of POC who have constantly felt targeted. Just because one does not represent all that doesn't take away from the fact that there are issues within the police force as an institution. Advising to flag down buses is not good enough and won't ever be

This actually happened to me 16 years ago. Walking home from my job as a waitress, around 11pm and was followed and later stopped by a plan clothes police officer, who said I was being followed by a homeless man. He wanted to get me home safely and showed me his warrant card, driving license etc.
Something about it felt wrong, even though he clearly was an officer. My mobile was old and out of battery so I said it was okay and I would call my dad to collect me from the telephone box approx 30 metres from where this police man stopped me.
I actually dialled 999 and when that became apparent he fled and another police officer in uniform picked me up and took me home. The whole exchange was captured on cctv (the lady I spoke to on 999 reassured me they could see me and him, with him stood right outside the phone box.)
My dad later chased up the incident but nothing ever came of it. No record of it happening.
It is absolutely terrifying to think what might have happened to me without that phone box being so close. I was a confident girl but I would have been completely stuck - 10 min walk home one way and 10 min walk back to town, where the only businesses open would have been kebab houses.

The police and met should be ashamed of themselves. Flag down a bus my fucking arse.

Not sure how "flagging down a bus" would help in the nearest town to where I live. The last one leaves at 6.30 and there isn't another until 7am the next morning. Clearly the Met think assaults only happen on bus routes in large towns and cities

Fuck being the bus driver in that situation

How often do women get arrested? I don't think it would be that much of a burden on the police if only women who were being arrested by a lone man had to wait for a second officer to turn up before they could be taken away.

Just googled, apparently only 1 in 7 arrested are female.

I also think the idea of telling women to ring 888 and ask for assistance to be sent to them if they feel threatened while out alone is ridiculous. Who exactly is going to come and help them? Batman? Because I can’t imagine there’s enough police officers to staff this. Pritti Patel reckons it will cost £50million to set up but she only seems to be thinking about the logistics of the app/phone system and no thought to how to deal with the calls?

Would be cheaper to issue every woman with a rape alarm.

@PattiPritell

I suppose it gives the officers a bit more fun, though, as it means they can get the thrill of the chase more often with an almost guaranteed result at the end of it, what with women being slower, smaller and weaker

Is this when you are walking home at night?? Random police offers rugby tackle you.

I'm not sure if you are aware, but there was a case very recently where an off duty police officer 'arrested' a woman walking home at night and raped, murdered and set her body on fire.

Since he was found guilty, it has been suggested by police that any woman who feels unsafe being arrested by a male police officer queries the legality and if they feel unsafe, they should run away and seek help from somebody else.

You may also not be aware that police officers are able to run after suspects and prevent their escape with force - a rugby tackle would be very effective in stopping somebody slower and weaker from escaping. A person pretending to be a police officer, an off duty one intending to harm a woman or one on duty who simply happens to enjoy the buzz of chasing and hurting a woman would also be likely to do this if the woman followed her instincts and tried to run away as suggested by Police Officers making suggestions as to how women could avoid being assaulted, raped and murdered by police officers or fake police officers rather than looking towards what the fuck has gone wrong that some police officers assault, rape and murder women.

I also rolled my eyes at this. Bus drivers in London are notoriously unfriendly, in my neck of the woods (East London) a bus driver is likely to purposely not stop the more you’re flailing your arms about and such. It’s a joke of a piece of advice.

Some of their ideas to keep women safe aren’t too bad. HOWEVER…

1. If there’s another monster like Wayne Couzens, then all he needs to do is wait til he’s on duty to grab someone. The woman he’s grabbed will have been given reassurance from Police control that he is who is says he is and before she knows it she’s been kidnapped.

1. Crazy policemen in the force could work in cahoots with one another. So the policeman sent to ‘reassure’ someone like Sarah could be the kidnapper’s mate, ready to pounce as a twosome.

1. As others have said, Flagging down a bus is a silly idea. The bus service would grind to a halt If they stopped for every lone woman (who has probably just missed the bus) Women should just be able to trust the Police and not have to rely on bus drivers.

There is no way on this earth that a bus driver would stop for a random woman waving them down in the street. Sometimes they don't even stop at a designated bus stop.

Everybody who travels by bus regularly knows this. Whoever came up with that piece of 'advice' has evidently never travelled by bus themselves; it was just insultingly ignorant.

The advice also presumes everywhere has decent buses and regular services. There are some buses in my neck of the woods where if you miss the 6pm bus, the next one isn't due until 8am on Monday. There are many places in the nearest city centre where there are no buses as its largely pedestrianised, there is a bus station/terminus at either end of town where all of the services are so if you were to get attacked in the centre of town you're pretty much fucking done for (you'd be done for anyway because flagging down a bus is ridiculous advice but let's pretend we're in happy-go-lucky land where this advice actually works).