Police in Fife are ramping up efforts to change men’s behaviour amid a national campaign to make streets safer for women.
Focus on education
Fife’s police chief said it was impossible to have “police officers on every corner” and educating men and boys about what is acceptable behaviour would be an important part of officers’ work in the year ahead.
Chief Superintendent Derek McEwan, who leads Police Scotland’s Fife Division, said: “A big part of this is really trying to push that education to the next generation of boys, men and to those men who are out there just now as to what is acceptable and what is not acceptable.
There’s no point in hiding from the fact that females are overwhelmingly the victims of male behaviours.”
Chief Superintendent Derek McEwan
“That is an important part of our equality and diversity work for the year ahead.
“We are all acutely aware of the concerns that are out there just now. We’ve been doing a lot of work over the last year to engage with women’s groups.
“There’s no point in hiding from the fact that females are overwhelmingly the victims of male behaviours.”
Police efforts praised
The issue was raised at a recent Fife Council committee meeting by SNP councillor Jean Hall Muir.
Ms Hall Muir said she “applauded” efforts by police to raise awareness via social media about issues surrounding consent but asked how officers were engaging with men and boys “to help them to not inflict violence on women’s bodies in public places”.
Mr McEwan said although the pandemic had “hampered activities”, there had been discussions with sport development officers, colleges and St Andrews University about the matter.
“It’s an area of work where we’re trying to push and educate even further because it’s not appropriate to just solely look to make the streets safe in respect of having a police officer on every corner so women can walk about and feel safe,” he added.
Investment in CCTV
Mr McEwan said CCTV was a “key tool” in protecting the public.
Over the past three years, £1 million has been invested in CCTV coverage across Fife Division.
“It’s certainly something we have always taken very seriously hence the reason why we have continued to invest so heavily in it and are aggressively pushing its upgrade,” said the Chief Superintendent.
If we can’t feel safe in our town centres, that’s a real concern to us all.”
Chief Superintendent Derek McEwan
“It could have been very easy to divert these funds elsewhere, but that’s not what we have chosen to do as a quality high performing public space CCTV system is a key tool in protecting the public, deterring crime and indeed detecting crime.
“If we can’t feel safe in our town centres, that’s a real concern to us all.”
He added: “We have also invested heavily in our Public Protection Unit over the years and have many female detective inspectors who are our senior investigating officers leading on not only our significant investigations, but planning ahead for the future to keep our public and private space as safe as it possibly can be.”