How are we tackling violence against women and girls in Wiltshire?

Wiltshire Police continues to carry out regular Project Vigilant deployments, which consist of intelligence-led patrols of hotspot locations to identify potential sexual predators and prevent sexual violence against women and girls (VAWG) across the county.

Wiltshire Police first adopted the Project Vigilant initiative in 2021, following its launch by Thames Valley Police in 2019.

What happens during a Project Vigilant deployment?

During a Project Vigilant deployment, a range of departments come together to search for people exhibiting predatory behaviour. This includes a joined-up approach between uniformed officers, plain clothes officers, and the Drone Unit with support from local council CCTV teams. Officers in plain clothes mingle in amongst crowds and are specially trained to spot signs of predatory behaviour. The behaviour can be anything from a man loitering outside a bar with seemingly no reason to be there, to a man leading a woman away from a bar or her friends. Once this behaviour has been identified, uniformed officers intervene and take appropriate action. The appropriate safeguarding for the woman involved, such as calling a taxi or finding their friend group, is then arranged.

If it is deemed appropriate, officers can exclude a person from a specific area using a Section 35 Dispersal Order under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act, 2014. Any intelligence gathered during a Project Vigilant deployment is analysed by researchers and analysts within Wiltshire Police’s Intelligence Unit and informs where the next deployment is based. Suspects are monitored by uniformed officers who carrying out home visits in the subsequent days to enable the person’s risk to be assessed and managed appropriately to prevent any criminal offences from taking place. 

Detective Inspector Troy Smith, of the VAWG Team at Wiltshire Police, is the force strategic lead for Project Vigilant. 

DI Smith said: “Rape and serious sexual offences can have a devastating and lasting impact on the victims. We work tirelessly to protect the public from sexual violence and bring offenders to justice. Through implementing Project Vigilant, we aim to proactively intercept some of our most serious potential offenders and reduce the risk of serious harm to women and girls. Project Vigilant is focused on the offenders’ behaviours, and we seek to actively challenge ‘red flag’ behaviour to enable women and girls to go about their daily tasks without fear or the need to change their behaviour.

“Our ambition is to make Wiltshire a hostile environment for sexual predators. Our continued Project Vigilant deployments are building an ever-stronger intelligence picture, so much so that, in our October deployment, we gathered a record amount of intelligence on suspected predators.”

What else is Wiltshire Police doing to tackle violence against women and girls?

Project Vigilant is just one of the initiatives that Wiltshire Police has implemented to end violence against women and girls. Our ongoing commitment to the national Operation Soteria scheme aimed to increase the number of adult rape and serious sexual assault cases reaching charge, has seen Wiltshire Police achieve a 76% conviction rate in the year to date. 

Detective Superintendent Lucy Thorne is the force lead for rape and serious sexual assault (RASSO).

Det Supt Thorne said: “Violence against women and girls is a national epidemic and we can never underestimate the impact of this horrendous crime on victims. We have made consistent improvements to our investigative processes to improve justice for victims. This year, we have secured custodial sentences of over 150 years for serious sexual offenders. Part of our improvements have included developing a more suspect-focussed approach to our investigations. Similarly to Project Vigilant deployments, this means focusing on the behaviours of perpetrators to try and prevent offences before they are able to happen. 

“Last week The Angiolini Inquiry Part 2 First Report was published, which sets key recommendations in relation to improving how we manage and respond to sexually motivated crimes against women in public. Upon review of those recommendations, we are pleased that we are already committed to several of the improvements suggested in the report.”

Det Supt Thorne continues: “In May this year, we launched a multi-agency tasking and co-ordination process (MATAC). This unites policing teams with our partners to target, disrupt, and engage with offenders who pose the most risk to the public. Operation Soteria is a transformation journey. We continue to work with support services within Wiltshire to drive improvement to our response to serious sexual offences and provide the best support to our victims.”

How can you help?

DI Smith concludes: “We remain absolutely committed to ending violence against women and girls. I ask that any suspected predatory behaviour is reported as intelligence to the police. We only need one small piece of information to connect the dots to enable us to remove a dangerous predator from our streets.” 

Wiltshire Police need intelligence submissions with as much detail as possible about potential offenders to help bring offenders to justice. Reports can be made via the website or by calling 101. Anonymous reports can be made to Crimestoppers.

Want to know more?

To watch a Project Vigilant deployment in action and hear more from our VAWG and Intelligence teams, click here.

For more information about Project Vigilant, recent police work tackling VAWG and how you can become a Vigilant Guardian in your community, click here. 

Project Vigilant compliments the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Wiltshire and Swindon’s ‘Getting You Home Safe’ campaign. This campaign highlights the partnership initiatives in place to keep the public safe at night and ensure they can get home safely during the festive season.