STOPIT: curbing unwanted behaviour on public transport

Editorial: Emily Wan

Photography: Brent Houghton

Victorian commuters are feeling safer while travelling on the state’s public transport network thanks to a new public safety notification service – the first of its kind in Australia.

Victorian commuters are feeling safer while travelling on the state’s public transport network thanks to a new public safety notification service – the first of its kind in Australia.

Developed by Victoria Police’s Transit Safety Division (TSD), STOPIT is part of a strategy to increase reporting of non-emergency unwanted sexual and anti-social behaviour on public transport in order to address these issues.

By using STOPIT, the public is now able to instantly and discreetly alert police to offences they experience or witness while on public transport.

The service works by users texting ‘STOPIT’ to 0499 455 455, which generates an automatic reply SMS containing a URL that the user clicks to start the reporting process – either while the incident is happening or after it has occurred.

Users aren’t required to provide their details, however police can follow up with them using their mobile number.

Images can be uploaded, or users can indicate they have video, to support the notification.

Once completed, the notification is sent to TSD to review.

“Because of the data we’ve collected from STOPIT notifications so far, we’re better positioned to understand the most common types of offences, when and where they’re occurring, and identify offenders,” TSD Superintendent Matthew Ryan said.

“This means we have a greater ability to take more targeted action against unwanted sexual and anti-social behaviour crimes.”

These offences can have a devastating and long-lasting impact on victims – who are most commonly women and girls – and reduces their confidence to take a train, tram or bus when travelling according to Superintendent Alison Boyes, formerly of TSD who managed the development of STOPIT.

“Research has shown that between 75 to 90 per cent of these offences weren’t reported to police, so we didn’t have a complete picture of the type of unwanted sexual and anti-social behaviour crimes that were being committed, where and when they were happening, and who offenders were,” Supt Boyes said.

“This was one of the key reasons behind the development of the service, and why it is so important for police to have a tool that captures this information and lets us analyse trends in offending to best use the organisation’s resources.

“Now, using STOPIT, people are quickly and easily reporting these crimes to police that they may not have reported before, typically because they didn’t think it was serious enough or didn’t have an easy way to do it.”

To further increase awareness around unwanted sexual behaviour on public transport and encourage reporting, Victoria Police also ran a state-wide campaign as part of the launch of STOPIT that featured across digital, social, audio, and outdoor media.

Supt Ryan said the campaign helped educate the community about the prevalence of this crime on public transport to further remove the normalisation that this behaviour should be expected, or that public transport users should become accustomed to it.

It also served to remind the public about how to report these crimes using STOPIT.

Once a crime of this nature is reported, in seven out of 10 cases TSD’s Crime Investigation Unit can identity the offender.

It’s important for the community to understand that STOPIT is a notification service only, so an immediate police or protective services officer response is not provided and some people may not be contacted regarding their submission.

If urgent assistance is required people should still call Triple Zero (000), or in non-emergency cases, visit a police station to complete a formal report.

Supt Ryan said TSD takes unwanted sexual behaviour and anti-social offences seriously, and with the introduction of STOPIT, the division can deploy resources to locations where they are most needed.

“This means a highly-visible and active police and protective services officer presence to deter and apprehend offenders, and to provide more support and reassurance to victims of these crimes,” he said.