“I want to feel safe”

By Agnese Ratniece

‘”I want to feel safe and confident when walking at night. I want to put my favourite music on my AirPods blasting and not worry about my safety,” said Kayleigh Bushnell, 28, who lives in the Tottenham Hale area. ”I don’t want to type 999 on my phone every time I walk past men to be safe just in case‘.’

”I don’t feel relaxed when walking at night until I reach my destination,” said Bushnell, “I walk with keys in my hand until I reach my home. Sometimes I speak with my friend on the phone. But to be honest, none of this would actually help me if there would be an attack on me.”

Bushnell is working at a bar and usually finishes her shift very late in the night. During the ten-minute walk from the underground station to her home she says she feels “paranoid” that something may happen to her. “At the moment I don’t have a boyfriend that could pick me up at the station. It sounds so sad to say that I would feel safer if there would be a male presence with me at nighttime, and I can’t feel safe by myself.”

The data shows that one in two women feel unsafe walking on the streets at night compared to one in five men. Two out of three women aged 16 to 34 years experienced one form of harassment in the previous 12 months. Of them, 44% experienced catcalls, whistles or unwanted sexual comments and jokes, and 29% felt that they have been followed.

”I would never say that Holloway is a safe area for girls,” said Diana Green, 23, an advertising student at the University of East London. “Before I moved here, I had no idea how safe is this area, and as my landlord told me it’s safe, I moved here.”

‘”I’ve been living here on Holloway Road now for around a year, and I have never experienced this much crime against me or my friends. I have been followed home three times by men at night, and one of them sexually harassed me. I was so scared and ran home while he still kept following me. Once I came home and locked the door he was still standing by my door,'” Green said about her experience living on Holloway road as a young woman.

“Not to even mention my card that has been stolen twice in this area and my iPhone that also got stolen once by someone on the bike.”

To make girls and women feel safe at night, in October 2021 the Metropolitan Police launched the Rebuilding trust plan. Later in November that year, the violence against women and girls (VAWG) action plan was also launched, to prevent violence against women and girls, target perpetrators and identify and punish those who express unacceptable behaviour towards women.

“The big focus of our action plan is making sure that we do work with women to keep them safe at nights, in particular, listening to their concerns, and making sure that we respond to those,” said Jane Connors, deputy assistant commissioner, during a public Q&A.

“We’re working to make sure that we focus on perpetrators. Operation vigilant is a system that we use with officers who are in plain clothes and work with uniform officers. They are specifically looking for people who are hanging around or staring and focusing on women or young girls at nighttime. They will stop and approach these people and then take action as needed.”

Connors also mentioned what the Metropolitan police has been already doing to keep women safe. One is an initiative called Asking for Angela. That is a system where women who feel vulnerable or not in a comfortable position, can “ask for Angela” from any bar or club staff. Staff are trained to recognise the implication of this, and will help straightaway, calling their customers a taxi or helping them move to a different area of the building to be away from someone who is giving unwanted attention.

In a survey about safety in the Holloway area, 84% of participants living there answered that they have experienced a crime or assault against them. Of 53 people, 42% of which majority were women, said that they have experienced a sexual assault, while 32% answered that they have experienced theft. Another 10% answered that they have experienced someone following them at home, which again was mostly women. And 20% of people answered that they haven’t experienced any crime in Holloway.

According to the Metropolitan Police, the top reported crimes in Holloway for April 2022 were harassment, theft from a vehicle and miscellaneous theft. In the category of theft from a vehicle, the most common stolen items were documents, sat navs, laptops, other electrical equipment, along with leisure and sports equipment.

In the category of miscellaneous theft, the most common offences are mail theft, residential theft by guests and keeping the lost property. Hot spots for harassment in Holloway are Caledonian Road and Camden Road.

The Metropolitan Police say that they have 650 extra officers who will help work on the violence against women and girls scheme. They also are encouraging people to come to them with any ideas that they think will help regarding safety for women and young girls.

”I think if there would be a presence of police around underground stations during the night, women would feel safer,” said Bushnell.