Op Safenight: Helping to protect women and girls

Lincolnshire Police has launched Op Safenight to help keep women and girls safe in Lincoln’s city centre at night.

The new proactive initiative, which will see additional patrols in parts of the city with some of the highest footfall, seeks to identify, prevent, and pursue predatory behaviour.

In bolstering our resources, we hope to ensure people can confidently enjoy themselves safely in the city centre.

Op Safenight will be run on top of our existing efforts in Lincoln and represents our continued commitment to protecting the public.

The first period of action in this operation took place over the Bank Holiday Weekend, with plans to carry out more work in the coming weeks and months.

Chief Inspector for Lincoln and West Lindsey Gareth Boxall said: “We want the city centre of Lincoln to feel a safe place at all times of the day and night.

“During the evening and into the night, particularly at the weekend, presents different challenges; the extra officers conducting these patrols are dedicated to stopping those who engage in any sort of predatory behaviour particularly towards women and girls in our city.

“This sort of behaviour isn’t acceptable, and our officers will make sure it doesn’t go unchallenged; they will use the legislation and powers available to them to stop it and take action against those who target women and girls in our city in this way.”

Operation Safenight will dovetail into a variety of existing schemes and utilise StreetSafe data to help inform where we conduct our work.

The online tool allows people to report areas where they feel unsafe for reasons such as anti-social behaviour, poor street lighting, environmental issues and more.

Data collated from the website gives us the ability to identify areas in need of improvement and act.

We are committed to tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) and making our county the safest place to live in, work and visit.

For information about the work to tackle VAWG, visit - Violence against women and girls | Lincolnshire Police (lincs.police.uk)