British Transport Police (BTP) hopes its new app, which can send video footage live from a mobile phone to police, will lead to a “zero tolerance” climate for sexual harassment on tubes and trains.
DCS Paul Furnell said sexual offences across the rail and London Underground networks are hugely under reported.
BTP wants to reverse this and get the public to report all forms of harassment, including acts historically seen as more minor such as leering at women and cat calling.
Currently, only between four and ten per cent of sexual harassment and abuse offences on the train network are reported.
Mr Furnell spoke to the Sunday Express after BTP revealed last month a survey that showed a third of women using tubes and trains had been sexually harassed or abused, and, although in 50 per cent of cases other passengers intervened, only one in five of those people went on to report what they saw.
He said: “Through the Railway Guardian app, if it is safe to, witnesses can send real-time video, photographs, or voice recordings they capture on a mobile phone, to our control room, if they believe someone is being sexually harassed or abused.”
The app could also be used by victims to report an offence and send evidence as it happened without having to phone police in front of a perpetrator.
Mr Furnell said not only does it capture evidence, it is instantly received by the force, which could have officers ready to board a train at an upcoming station, if it was deemed to be an offence.
He said: “The app can be used by witnesses or people who feel threatened without them having to make a phone call.
“The app gives the public the ability to capture video and voice recordings of what they see around them and send it straight to our control room and that gives us a huge potential.”
Victims can also text information live to officers via 61016.
The app was designed with input from survivors of abuse and also gives tips on how people can safely interrupt harassment behaviour, to allow officers time to arrive.
It can be used for historic information to help build BTP’s intelligence picture around when and where offences happen.
Victims can make anonymous reports and suspects could still be investigated with civil orders obtained to restrict behaviour if a pattern of offending is shown.
He said: “Historically people perceived we would not be responding to certain behaviour including staring, but we want bystanders to share this information so we create an environment where there is zero tolerance for that behaviour.
“This is about creating a hostile environment for offenders so the trains are not a place they feel safe to offend. People think we won’t take it seriously, but we absolutely will and we need to reset that threshold of where people have not reported such information.”
A spokeswoman for The Survivors Trust said: “We are supportive of any initiative that aims to make public transport safer for all and BTP has clearly worked hard on developing the app to help people travel more safely and with greater confidence.
“We need to continue to challenge unacceptable behaviours and call them out as a society.
“We also need to continue to promote bystander interventions – if you see something inappropriate, then report it or say something, as long as it is safe to do so.
“With most people owning a mobile phone, the Railway Guardian app should help commuters to safely report the sexual harassment or sexual assault that they have witnessed to BTP and let them do the rest.”
