Plain-clothes officers target night-time predators

Plain-clothes officers have started patrolling outside pubs and clubs looking for predators.

Avon and Somerset Police launched the new scheme after figures showed that a quarter of all crimes reported in the area related to violence against women or girls.

Seven rapes are reported every day on average to the force. But it has one of the country's longest waiting times for police to charge offenders for rape, taking an average of 626 days - more than double the national average of 306.

Sarah Crew, Chief Constable, said the issue is "a priority" but admitted the force has "finite resources".

Charging rates have improved within the force, with the figure within the force doubling over the past three years resulting in a 7.3% charge rate, compared to the 7% national average.

A charging rate describes the percentage of reported crimes that result in a suspect being charged with an offence.

Between October 2023 to September 2024, almost 40,000 crimes that fit the category of violence against were women and girls were reported to the force, Ms Crew said.

This was "really significant", she added, against the context that 160,000 crimes in total were reported over that period - meaning nearly a quarter of all crimes reported in a year were violence against women and girls.

Recorded rape offences have seen a 47% increase in the past year and a three-year rise of 62% within Avon and Somerset Police, which the force attributes to growing awareness and confidence in reporting crimes to officers.

The force has been addressing male violence through a new approach called Operation Vigilant, which sees plain-clothes police patrol outside pubs and clubs "looking for the behaviour of potential predators".

Ms Crew said this included monitoring "men looking at women who may be out enjoying themselves" while socialising and drinking, looking for a "point of vulnerability" to exploit in a potential sexual offence.

She told the BBC that police had arrested someone identified using this approach last weekend, adding: "It's early days in that investigation but it shows that technique can work."

Ms Crew added the force "absolutely needs to improve" the time it takes to charge an offender for rape.

She pointed to force's pioneering work as part of Operation Bluestone, which was launched in response to a Home Office pledge increase the number of rape cases ending in a conviction and involved working with academics to improve policing approaches.

She told the BBC that Operation Bluestone would be replicated with a focus on domestic violence from January to "to really get under the skin" of how police dealt with such crimes and "identify where the frailties are".

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