More officers specially trained to spot predatory behaviour will be deployed at concerts across London this summer to try and keep women and girls safer, the Metropolitan Police said.
The capital is gearing up to host an unprecedented number of events, with more than 50 concerts taking place at major venues including the London and Emirates stadiums, as well as Wembley, which is due to host three million people alone.
Dedicated violence against women and girls (VAWG) patrols will be on duty both inside venues and along routes to and from major transport hubs to root out potential predators and reassure concert goers.
The project forms part of the Met’s V100 project, a new data-driven approach to identify serious sexual offenders and prevent crimes.
It began on June 5 at US singer Beyonce’s concert at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and led to the removal of an individual on suspicion of stalking and threatening behaviour, as well as the arrest of a man for upskirting, who remains on police bail.
Since the V100 project was introduced 18 months ago, 177 arrests have been made leading to 154 charges and 129 convictions.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ben Russell said: ‘This is about identifying through our data the men posing the biggest risk of women and girls in London and taking action in a very targeted, precise way.’
He told Metro: ‘We have never seen anything like the demand we have got for concerts this year.
‘I think what’s happened is basically because of Taylor Swift – she came to London, and it was immensely popular, sold loads of tickets across loads of nights, and I think because of that promoters and event organisers have said we want to come to London and host concerts in major stadiums.
‘It’s 51 separate concerts this summer, over double what we had last year.’
He added: ‘There’s a number of reasons we police concerts in the way we do, and VAWG is one of them.
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‘But we use relatively small numbers of officers to do that because it’s all about spotting people in a crowd and we try to be quite precise in our approach – who is walking the wrong way? Who has turned up when everyone else is going home?
‘That’s not the typical kind of behaviour we would expect, and it’s all about spotting those kinds of people and using the judgement of our officers to step in and have a conversation.
‘And we’ve had some really good successes already with that approach.
‘We don’t go into the summer with a set list of events. But it’s very much based on the predictable demographics. So, Dua Lipa tonight for example, it’s something like 70% female.
‘We would expect a very different demographic for Oasis and Coldplay than we would for Dua Lipa or Beyonce.’
Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Kaya Comer-Schwartz, said: ‘Women and girls deserve to be safe and feel safe wherever they are in the capital and I welcome this action by the Met at summer concerts to prevent violent behaviour, support those in need and take swift action against perpetrators.
‘The Met’s V100 work, made possible by City Hall funding, is transforming the way they tackle violence against women and girls, ensuring perpetrators who pose the greatest risk are arrested and convicted – protecting victims from the worst offenders and making our streets safer.
‘Putting specially trained officers at these busy summer concerts is another step in the right direction.
‘The Mayor and I will continue to support the Met to do everything possible to keep women and girls safe as part of our ongoing public health approach to tackling VAWG in all its forms to build a safer London for all.’
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