WOMEN SAFETY


detailed document that went into absolute granular level detail, even street level. That document formed an idea of the streets of Greater Manchester. People most felt unsafe, and the reason why? “So, we used that product and our profile, which was our analysis of police help data and some partner data, to tell us where our biggest threat was for women and girls in the nighttime economies. “It is not rocket science, but the product


told us that our busier town centres pose the biggest threat.” GMP looked at the City of Manchester,


Manchester City Centre, Oldham, which has a very established nighttime economy, and Bolton for the same reasons. The kernel of an idea for a summer


campaign was born and developed from there, and we wanted it to coincide with freshers - the fresher’s nightlife - which ran from July and throughout the summer to the early middle of September. The overarching ambition of GMP is to make the operation business as usual. It has encouraged every district to vote to see if they wanted to incorporate it, which most have now. Strategically, the force wanted it to link to the community safety partnerships. “Op Lioness is a long-term strategy


that costs around £335,000 the idea is to spread it across the 10 districts to help fund and support this operation so that every weekend, we have dedicated resources going out onto the town centres to give that visible deterrent and reassurance,” Supt. Faulkner added. “We visited licensed premises to ensure we had things like posters for patrons and ensured the bar and club staff knew what that meant. “We handed out spike or anti-spiking


kits, and we could hand them out to patrons. We had a trigger plan so the door staff knew what to do should a spiking incident occur. The vast majority already knew what to do.” It is well known in


this, where we used full level two decoys, and even deployed plain-clothed officers into pubs and clubs just to get a sense of what the atmosphere was like. It was a hybrid covert operation.” With the support of licensees, taxi marshals, street angels, local hotels and


Greater Manchester Police has been


able to arrest multiple perpetrators through Operation Lioness. “Last year, we managed to arrest some for rape, as well as sexual and domestic assaults,” he continued. “We even had an arrest for spiking, which, in my experience, is rare - to


Greater Manchester some districts see Thursday and Sunday nights as the bigger nights out, so the operation required staff on the ground over this period. “We deployed spotting staff to identify men who stood out like a sore thumb and would latch on to drunk and vulnerable women,” he explained. “We ran a very covert operation ahead of


“Women and girls should not be afraid to use our nighttime economies, so we decided to dovetail this. Every weekend, we have dedicated resources going out into the town centres to give that visible deterrent and reassurance.”


elected local MPs out on patrol, all have supported the operation in ensuring women and girls are safe. “The key stakeholders in any nighttime economy have been critical to this. This operation, without a doubt, has been a success,” Supt. Faulkner said.


have someone reporting a


spiking and then, within hours, have someone arrested for it. Furthermore, that is all done by the Lioness staff,


which I am proud of. “It is all about spotting predatory behaviours, identifying vulnerable women and girls, and doing something about that before incidents may occur. It might be getting them into a taxi, or, alternatively, making sure they have friends with them.”


21 | POLICE | OCTOBER | 2023


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