Creeps in the park filming

[Volpina]

I’m a runner and train in my local park mostly. I have noticed that men sometimes sit on park benches filming as I am running. I usually then alter my route to avoid them. Today I actually stopped Strava (really bloody annoying) and confronted a guy. He had held up his phone as I approached and filmed me. I asked him to show me and indeed he had filmed me. He looked a bit shocked that I’d confronted him. I asked him to delete it, and not to film women running in the park. He left the park pdq.

I am lucky that he was timid about it and I don’t know why I saw red today and said something, I had just had enough. I have never done anything like this before. The Surrey Police Jog On campaign is sending female police officers to run in targeted locations to ‘stop street-based harassment against female runners’. But filming women is more subtle and it’s not illegal. But it's very creepy.

If you run in a public place, have you noticed this happening?

Good for you, although please look after yourself.

What a fucking creep. I would log with police locally. It’s very odd behaviour.

It's not illegal - they can't even be forced to delete their film. I think he did because he looked a bit scared.

Yeah it’s not illegal but it’s creepy and a good thing for community police to know about. There is probably a decent chance that they already know the creep.

I have seen men a couple of times filming children after swimming lessons I complained to the manager. Mixed changing rooms are an issue.

Surprised he didn't say I is in a public place I can film who I want. Thats a problem in itself.

Well done for standing up. I'd probably freeze.

Record them and then post it publicly

Yes I reckon I will report it on reflection. I took a photo of him as he was exiting the park. The thing is, it's summer, and it's hot so can't wear clothes that cover me up that much. Also, why should I. Thanks for supportive comments. I can cope with men making the usual inane comments - 'Keep it up' etc., not harmful just annoying. But this - it's much more sinister than wolf whistles.

Yes take their photograph and put it on face book/instagram. Name and shame them.

Was he a 'local' or a newcomer? I'm asking as he may not have had any sinister or creepy intentions, he might be filming people to show his family/friends back home "oh look how women here run in the parks, they look after their health" type of thing. The fact he was openly doing it makes me think it's something along these lines rather than him using the footage in a nefarious way. It's not illegal, so technically he's not doing anything wrong. There will be cameras all over the parks that are capturing your footage too.
My SIL is foreign and is always taking pictures of random kids she finds cute, she has a camera roll of them and I'm Facebook friends with her family and they often put completely unrelated kids (that they've found on internet stock pictures) as their profile pic, just because they think they are cute. Nothing weird behind it, it's normal where she is from and being assumed to be a paedo or such would be completely absurd to her.

Where is your friend from?

Please don't. The man has done nothing wrong, he wasn't wanking off to the OP running and openly told her he was filming her. In my city some vigilante 'save our children' groups filmed themselves walking around a park at night, confronting men who looked "off the boat" and demanded to see their ID and posted it online. The man was simply walking home from work through the park, there wasn't even a child in sight, and the man attempted to take his own life over it.

Please don't. The man has done nothing wrong

While I very much agree with the sentiment about vigilante justice, saying he is doing nothing wrong is ridiculous.

What he is doing IS wrong.. it may not be illegal but it is a gross invasion of privacy and who knows what he is doing with the footage or if he is tracking OP or in some sort of group giving out locations/times/days of women like OP who may be vulnerable to attack in the right circumstances.

I'm glad the confrontation went well OP, but if it happens again, I would covertly film him/take pictures of him filming you, then report him to the police.

By all means OP should report to the police, but he technically hasn't done anything wrong. Filming someone is not a gross invasion of privacy by law (unless there is proof that the footage is used for nefarious purposes), the OP is running in a public place where her images are being captured everywhere. I completely agree it does not feel nice at all, but "naming and shaming" someone online for a non crime is wholly wrong.

It is laughable to suggest he did nothing wrong. In no way is it acceptable to sit in a park and openly perv at women as they run past. To film them makes it much worse.

Now it's getting a bit darker in the evenings, can you invest in a body cam for running?

Gives me the creeps. I've had photos taken of me just smiling in a pub ("oh I didn't mean to get you in dear, I was taking a pic of my mate!") or, far worse than that, wearing a bikini on a beach ("it's alright love, just taking a pic of my girlfriend") when it's been OBVIOUS what they're after.

It doesn’t matter what you “think” someone has been doing or not doing. You are not the police, and have no idea really of their motivations. No one should be “naming and shaming” on social media. As for every person who is correctly accused they’ll be at least one more who hasn’t been (either accidentally or maliciously). And it encourages groups like the one mentioned above to - groups accosting people in parks at night is frightening and should not be encouraged by anyone. And as the pp said, the outcome of someone being wrongly accused can be their death. Vigilante behaviour, however well meaning, is very dangerous.

Thankfully on my local FB group such posts are banned.

Hasn't done anything wrong???

Wtf??

Do you know what?
It's so easy for us to doubt ourselves and try to ascribe the most benevolent of intentions to these men.
There was an Egyptian guy joined our swimming and was over familiar with the women, me included, transgressing boundaries. I gave him the benefit of the doubt, thinking this sort of behaviour was probably cultural and a sign of a more warm and outgoing society than ours. This was until a warning went out on the group (from which he was then banned) about his behaviour and for women to be very careful. Holding him to a much lower standard than usual and not listening to my instincts on this man was surely an act of racism on my part.

Thos is similar to my work. I work in a chemist/pharmacy and, even tho I am not a qualified pharmacist (which I point out), I get male customers wanting to show intimate parts of their bodies to me.
The way we have of getting round that is to invite them to show them to a male member of staff! They soon disappear!
(The few that don't you know were genuinely concerned about something, and are genuinely happy for me - or qualified colleagues - to suggest or prescribe something.)

@NPET that's awful. I'm sorry you have to deal with that.

What the fuck is wrong with men? I’m fuming for you op.

Thank you.
It doesn't happen as often as maybe I'm suggesting, but I'm what people call a conventionally pretty 21 year old, and fsr men think I'm "worthy" of seeing what they have (or haven't!) got.

I remember there used to be a (possibly Facebook?) group for sharing pictures of women eating on tube trains. I never looked at it but definitely noticed myself being photographed by men a few times. It was a horrible feeling. At the time I was working between several locations and often my only chance to eat lunch was when travelling.

FFS male humans. You've already made the world hostile enough for women. You really really don't need to add more forms of harassment.