Crackdown on predators targeting women and girls
BBCPolice officers are carrying out extra patrols in two seaside towns to keep women and girls safe at night.
Officers from Dorset Police have been specially trained to identify suspicious behaviour, including harassment, cat-calling and other forms of sexual misconduct.
Following a trial last year, the force is rolling out Project Vigilant in Bournemouth and Weymouth and will target men who have previously acted in a predatory way towards women at night.
The project was first established by Thames Valley Police (TVP) in 2019 and piloted in Oxford, before being expanded into Reading, Windsor and Milton Keynes.
Other forces around the country, including Dorset, have taken it on since.
TVP's work found of about 40 people who had acted "in a predatory way" towards women in a town centre, 19 were already known to police for sexual offences.
The project's champions have been praised in The Angiolini Inquiry - an investigation into how Met Police officer Wayne Couzens was able to abduct, rape and murder Sarah Everard in 2021.
Teams of non-uniformed and uniformed officers work together to stop the predatory behaviour.
The non-uniformed officers gather intelligence and the uniformed ones intervene in an attempt to prevent any future harmful behaviour.
Det Ch Insp Jamie Halford, who is leading the operation, said "There is some cultural differences around some of this in terms of the makeup of our towns.
"We have a lot of people that are not local to the area, but they come and enjoy our towns and our beaches.
"And so where you get that mix of different people across our towns, that really becomes quite impactive in terms of how we can police that."
Halford said women and girls could also feel more vulnerable in town centre locations.
Two events in Bournemouth in 2024 - the International Women's Day walk by Labour MP Jessica Toale and the annual Foxstrut by photographer Jayne Jackson - highlighted the call for safer streets for women in the town.
Tom Hayes, Labour MP for Bournemouth East, who previously ran a domestic abuse service, has also been a prominent voice on the issue and has worked with the force to improve street safety.
