Men harassing women in central London with catcalling, wolf-whistling and sexualised remarks face being hit with £100-on-the-spot fines. Police officers can also issue the fixed penalty notices for remarks directed at them. Female officers, especially on late night patrols in the West End, Soho and other areas, are at times targeted with comments such as “sexy” and taunts about their uniform and handcuffs.
How the Fines Work
The £100 fines, for being in breach of a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO), can be given out by police or council officers for anti-social behaviour such as harassment, street drinking, drug-related activity, public urination and aggressive begging. The crackdown, highlighted by LBC Radio, was backed by women and equalities minister Baroness Smith.
The former Home Secretary said: “I want everybody to be able to walk the streets of London, safe, enjoying our fantastic capital city, not being harassed. So, yes, this is an important development, and I'm pleased to see it.”
Police Perspective
The Met Police says the £100 fines are a “middle ground” to quickly tackle offending which causes distress but falls short of the threshold for arrest on suspicion of sex-based harassment which can lead to two years in jail. Westminster Neighbourhood Policing Superintendent Natasha Evans said: "We can arrest people and take them through the criminal justice process. However, what this allows us to do is really focus on the lower-end antisocial behaviour element of that and educate people using a fine."
She also told how the penalties could be used to deter or respond to language and behaviour targeting female officers. She explained: "Comments around uniform, handcuffs, that kind of thing...they really dread those weekend (shifts) because of those comments. We'll still arrest for anything that we need to arrest for." But for lesser offences she stressed: “This is a really proportionate way of educating people around that harassment and how it makes people feel."
Officer's Experience
One officer, aged 23, who spoke to LBC, described the “horrible comments” she was subjected to when out on foot patrol in Soho and the West End, including remarks such as “sexy” and “pretty girl”. She added: “It's so creepy, your skin crawls a bit."
PSPO Details and Impact
The PSPO came into force across Westminster in February to clamp down on "persistent anti-social behaviour" such as street harassment, drug use, loitering, public urination and nuisance pedicabs. Police officers in Westminster have handed out some 170 fines in the last month to people for being in breach of the wider PSPO.
Caroline Sargent, Westminster Council's Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Enforcement, said: "This is the heart of London, it's the West End, it's our entertainment district. People just want to come here and have fun. They don't want to be pestered, or worse attacked, and targeted by some of this criminal activity. This PSPO allows us to work with the police and tackle it."
Mark Williams, deputy chief executive of the Heart of London Business Alliance which represents businesses in the West End, added: "If you don't deal with these fundamental issues, then it's a breeding ground for other even more serious crimes to take place. So dealing with this baseline and getting that right and making it inhospitable for people to commit crime in this area is exactly what we need to do."
