Plain-clothed UK police have posed as joggers to catch street harassers, making 18 arrests in a crackdown on catcalling.
A month-long operation in Surrey in England’s south-east targeted street harassment against female runners.
While catcalling itself isn’t a criminal offence in the UK, certain forms could be classified as harassment, which is illegal.
Police
According to Surrey Police, a survey of 450 local women found that almost 50% had experienced, but never reported, this kind of harassment.
In an interview with UK outlet LBC, a female officer involved in the operation described the behaviour as “prevalent”, saying: “We get honked at, the staring, the hanging out the window just to look at us.”
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Arrests made during the operation were for offences including verbal harassment, sexual assault, and theft.
'Free speech'
Independent group the Free Speech Union accused police of focusing on the wrong targets while “Britain is in the grip of a surge in serious crime.”
In a statement on social media, the group wrote: “Perhaps Surrey Police should... think about whether prowling the streets in search of lawful but disapproved remarks is really the best use of police time”.
In 2020, the FSU lost a court case against the UK media regulator, which it alleged had allowed media outlets to “censor COVID [lockdown] dissidents”.
