Police pose as joggers to catch men harassing women

[Dutchesss]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/aug/13/surrey-police-pose-as-joggers-to-catch-men-harassing-women-running-exercising

18 arrests in just one month, although it doesn't say how many were for theft.
The women were being honked at within 10 minutes of running.

Really glad the police are taking action on this.

Good idea.

Pleasantly surprised this is something the police are taking seriously.

'Pleasantly surprised this is something the police are taking seriously.'

Same here. And even more surprised that the focus is on the men, rather than women being told to 'be vigilant' and all that crap. More of this please

It's great to hear the police being proactive here. Would love to see similar schemes elsewhere. Men just think they can get away with this shit.

I was really pleased to read it. I was also shocked at myself when reading it because I realised how normal it is to expect and accept this kind of harassment as part of every day life.

I would love to know what charge they are arresting them on. What part of the law are they breaking that they’ve been getting away with all this time?

Inattentive driving maybe.

I really hope they deploy a willing high BMI woman in this role too because the abuse women who dare to be fat and leave the house in running gear get is a disgrace.

Yes, great idea. Years ago I had a neighbour who was struggling to conceive. She was such a lovely person, would have been a fab mum. She was quite fat and was told to lose weight for NHS IVF so she started to go out jogging / in her bike a bit. I got back one day to find her in exercise gear crying. Some guys had apparently shouted horrible things to her and she was so upset. I never saw her out exercising again and she didn’t lose the weight for the IVF. The utter bastards.

Brilliant!
I would love to have seen the looks on the men's faces when the officers revealed themselves!

from my reading the 18 were charged with sexual assault and harassment so relatively serious crimes. I think many of those who 'just' catcalled etc were given 'words of advice'

It’s public sexual harassment which is illegal.

there's been a sad bit of backlash about this locally. Lots of people complaining that surrey police aren't doing anything about actual crime.

I think it's great though and actually, the PR is even better - there was even a clip on the BBC. It's really raising awareness of the issue which can only be a good thing becuase so many men are so oblivious to it or think it's not a big deal.

really got into it over this with a Bloke on Twitter yesterday. Basically catcalling isn't illegal and police should be concentrating on burglaries.

To be fair, loads of men called him on it, and pointed out that 18 arrests means deffo illegal things going on. Was also pointed out that sometimes police have an absolute blitz on speeding drivers, with extra mobile speed cameras etc.

My Twidiot brought up Wayne Couzens though - so game over as he started as a flasher...

I think this is an area that needs more attention and I am really pleased to see this initiative. This morning I was followed by a very creepy man who was hard to shake off. He spotted me as we were both about to cross a road (on opposite sides), and changed the direction he was going to trail me, dangerously crossing a road to keep behind me. I managed to lose him at a busy bus stop but I could see him looking for me.

I haven't reported that one to the police as I have reported two other more serious harassment incidents recently, and several others previously, and I do worry that having all of that 'on my file' makes it look like I'm the problem or making it all up. There are far too many vile men out there.

My daughter used to get cat called all the time - she wouldn't go out on her own because of it for a while. Police advice was to check the make of car - they told us to teach her the various marques - if she wanted to report it as cctv would pick the car up.

She was only about 13 when it started. I don't remember the same level of harrassment when I was her age.

Who are these men? As well as being cat called she has experienced loads of creepy incidents - once a man picked her up like a surf board and tried to carry her out of a pub!

Men blatantly stare at her, even if she is with me or her boyfriend. It is beyond intimidating. I think Transport for London ran a campaign against intrusive staring a few years ago and they were mocked for it but it is really creepy.

Good. I’d welcome my local force doing the same.

I'd love to see the footage of this. Bet the offending men change their tune pretty sharpish!

I saw a clip about this, and the comments were depressing.
So glad that they are doing this- it’s ridiculous that cat calling happens so often.

It would be better if some of it could be caught on cctv and shown on tv, so the general population can see what women have to put up with.

That's not the main issue though. The issue is the fact that the police are going after low hanging fruit, rather than dangerous criminals.

It's so easy to go after a clown behind a steering wheel with a big mouth who probably pisses himself whenever he sees a police car. But the police are intimidated by men who are rapists, murders, who routinely shoplift, and who are involved in knife crime, so those men are never touched.

Exactly, most men will do this as they fully believe they will never get caught. Hopefully, at least some will think again.

It's so easy to go after a clown behind a steering wheel with a big mouth who probably pisses himself whenever he sees a police car. But the police are intimidated by men who are rapists, murders, who routinely shoplift, and who are involved in knife crime, so those men are never touched.

The police are intimidated by shoplifters? 🤔

It doesn't make sense to me to say that the police should stop chasing low hanging fruit like sexual harassment and then suggest they target shoplifters instead. To me, a bottle of wine getting nicked from Tesco comes way behind women being abused.

And knife crime isn't easy to address either because white liberals lose their minds every time the police introduce stop and search schemes aimed at black youths carrying knives.