Rose

Introduction

I am a Neighbourhood Police Inspector for Avon and Somerset Police and I am a lead for Violence against Women and Girls in Somerset and have launched the Walk and Talk scheme for Women to feel safer in their communities. Prior to joining the police I undertook a sports coaching degree, and wrote my dissertation on barriers to participation in girls PE. I also play football for my local town Wincanton Ladies FC, so feel very connected to womens safety and participation in sport.

Importance of Health and Activity

I believe everyone should have access to physical activity and should not be limited through fear of violence. Playing football has kept me active, with training once a week and a match on Sunday. It gives me a good opportunity to de-stress after a long day and spend time with my team which is as important for my mental health as the physical activity. Team work and feeling supported is a great part of it.

Importance of Opportunities for Women and Girls

Its so vital for physical and mental health to keep active. They should have the same opportunities as anyone else, which currently they do not. Often girls who play sport, especially team sports become great leaders and it is a great life skill to have. 

From a policing perspective, violence against women and girls is at an epidemic level and is disproportionately high, so it is understandable why women are fearful to take part in physical activity. Often seeing women running whilst on the phone, or avoiding hours of darkness and that just isn’t right.

The Role of Community and Support

For the Police, we want the community to speak with us and let us know where they don’t feel safe. If there areas we can improve (through extra patrols) or joint working like street lighting etc, then we want to try and make that happen, hopefully making women and girls feel safer will allow them to take part in sport and activity.

Walk and Talk is a new scheme where women can walk with a female PC or PCSO to show us where they don’t feel safe. This can be any time of day or night and for any reason, whether this is a running route, walk home from work etc and we will work with other agencies to try and improve the areas that make them feel unsafe. This has been really successful and we have worked collaboratively to fix street lighting, empower women to feel safer, increase patrols, resolve ASB in areas and install new street lighting which has allowed women to feel safer.