Dear all
Following the liaison between feminist groups in Bristol & the police on the advice issued to women, a meeting was arranged to discuss women's safety in Bristol. Members of Bristol Fawcett and Bristol Feminist Network attended. I wasn't there but the rep from BFN kindly send these notes out to members so I thought I would post them here in case anyone is interested.
Meeting with Sergeant Amanda Frame
Newfoundland Road Police Station
Amanda Frame Avon and Somerset Police (ASC)
Bristol Feminist Network
Bristol Fawcett
Amanda explained her role ? she is head of the Bristol community liaison team, managing several officers working across the Bristol district on reducing community tension. After any major incident that has an impact on the
community (murder, rape, kidnapping, terrorism or any other incident which
affects a particular community), Amanda and her team inform the local advisory groups via email and SMS about the case and what progress is being made. This is to ensure that these groups get accurate and correct
information straight from the police.
We discussed the problem of the media distorting police press releases and
putting out information that the police have not made public. The police are not in a position to reveal details about cases as this can put them in contempt of court.
Amanda thanked us for our response to the police?s initial personal safety advice to women, and we acknowledged that they had changed their advice following our feedback. The team are there to listen to the community and welcome any feedback that we give.
We asked about what the police were doing to raise awareness of the issue of domestic violence in the city.
Amanda explained that due to the frequent distortion of safety messages by the media, ASC prefer to put out messages through their own channels. They have a website, do talks to women?s groups and have done these activities for a long time.
We asked whether the police would target male behaviour around domestic violence and sexual assault.
Amanda talked about the work the police do with victims, emphasising the importance of a multi-agency approach. She explained that domestic violence and sexual assault is not always male on female and she expected to be
heavily criticised if she did target men in any campaign. We pointed out that proportionally, male on female violence was the most common, and if the safety information was presented in the same proportions, rather than all the emphasis being on women, this would be more useful.
The police do run a course called ?Change? for men who have been caught using prostitutes. In an ideal world, they would run these sorts of courses for
perpetrators of all crimes but funding is an issue. Amanda suggested we contact probation to find out what sorts of work they do.
Amanda pointed out that the responsibilities of the police, probation and Crown Prosecution Service are quite different, but can seem to all come down to the police.
Two members asked about the safety of taking taxis. It turns out there is a lot we can do to ensure our personal safety when using taxis. Taxis are licensed by the council. Amanda suggested always taking black cabs where you can, as there are more laws on them to protect you if you do. If the driver begins to behave inappropriately, get the driver to stop somewhere safe and get out, or
you can ask them to take you to the nearest police station, or to stop if you know there will be police officers nearby (if you were on the centre at the weekend for example). Tell the officers you are concerned about the driver?s behaviour. Always take their badge number, registration plate or the company
they work for (if a mini-cab) and then complain to the council. The council are
responsible for the licensing, but the police are able to oppose a licence and the council will warn any driver who has a complaint made against them. The registration plate of the car can also be used to make a complaint.
Any unwanted touch is an ASSAULT and the police will take any complaint seriously. Reporting this as quickly as possible is important, for collecting evidence, and taking as much information for identification purposes is important also.
The licence of cab drivers is an agreement they will behave responsibly so there is a lot that can be done.
Personally, I?d suggest always asking for the badge number before getting in the car if is not visible. Don?t get in the cab if they won?t give it to you, if possible.
Finally, we asked about street lighting. Members have noted that the lights in
Clifton are particularly dim, making advice to ?stick to well-lit areas? somewhat
redundant if this is where you live. Again, this is an issue that the council is
responsible for. However, Amanda will feed this back to the multi agency meetings she attends. Members are encouraged to complain to the council about specific streets.
Finally, Amanda thanked us again for raising the issue with us, and encouraged us to feed back on issues when they arose. You can sign up to the ASC e-bulletin on their website and press releases and information is regularly sent out. Any comments about the police?s information can be forwarded to Amanda.