Female Police Officers to Pose as Joggers in Crackdown on Cat Calling in Bradford

File photo of people jogging through Hyde Park in London on Aug. 22, 2018. PA Wire/PA Images

Female plainclothes police officers have been sent to “run or jog in ‘hotspot’ areas” in an effort to tackle “runner harassment” and cat calling from strangers in Bradford.

The city of Bradford Metropolitan District Council confirmed the enforcement action was taking place in its announcement of the “JogOn to female runner harassment” campaign on Wednesday.

Bradford Council stated that police have “carried out enforcement action sessions across the district by sending female officers out in plain clothes to run or jog in ‘hotspot’ areas.”

The council said it can also enforce its Public Space Protection Order (PSCO), which bans the “anti-social use of vehicles,” including “shouting, swearing at, or abusing, threatening or intimidating another person – including using sexual language or making sexual suggestions” from a vehicle.

Those found to have breached the order can receive a Fixed Penalty Notice or a £1,000 fine.

The campaign comes under the Safer Bradford partnership, which is comprised of Bradford Council, West Yorkshire Police, and the NHS.

The council referenced a 2021 Runner’s World magazine poll which said that 60 percent of female runners had experienced some form of harassment while jogging, with 90 percent of those saying the harassment came from men and particularly men in cars or vans.

These Behaviours ‘Will Not Be Tolerated’

The council said harassment “leaves many women feeling scared and intimidated, looking for alternative running routes or changing the times they go out to avoid cat calling, offensive comments and, occasionally, physical harassment.”

Superintendent Beth Pagnillo of Bradford District Police said: “People might not think these behaviours are worth reporting but we want to make it clear that these behaviours and incidents can be reported, reviewed and investigated and will not be tolerated.

“With the PSPOs in Bradford, these behaviours can be reported, which could lead to a breach in PSPO, and an offence being committed.

“The enforcement, education and engagement undertaken through JogOn allows us to combine efforts through partnership working to tackle these behaviours, encouraging reporting by runners across the district but also to prevent incidents from happening in the first place,” she added.

Violence Against Women Needs to Be Treated Like ‘Terrorism’

The announcement follows Sir Mark Rowley, the UK’s most senior police officer, saying that violence against girls and women should be treated in the same manner as terrorism or organised crime.

Sir Mark told the London Policing Board on Tuesday, “The aim nationally should be to treat it as a national security threat like we treat organised crime, like we treat terrorism.”

He added, “When you look at the amount of harm that predatory men create in communities and to individuals, that’s what it deserves.”

On Thursday, the Equality and Human Rights Council (EHRC) said the government should do more to tackle violence against women and girls (VAWG).

The EHRC said it welcomed the government’s targets to improve the safety of women and girls, but recommended areas it said needed improvement, including tacking violence perpetrated by the police. The watchdog referenced data from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) that said some 1,400 allegations of violence against women and girls had been recorded over a six-month period.

An NPCC report published in March 2023 stated: “Between 1 October 2021 and 31 March 2022, there were 1,177 recorded cases of police-perpetrated VAWG, of which 653 (55%) were investigated as conduct and 524 (45%) were investigated as a complaint. These cases resulted in 1,483 unique allegations being recorded against 1,539 officers or staff members.”

The EHRC’s and Sir Mark’s comments come after the publishing of the first part of the Angiolini Inquiry last week, which concluded that Wayne Couzens, who was jailed for life for the March 2021 abduction, rape, and murder of Sarah Everard, should never have been employed as a police officer by the Metropolitan Police because of his large debts and history of depravity.