ON your next night out in Upper Street, you may just find yourself standing beside plainclothes police officers on the lookout for predatory behaviour as part of a borough-wide crack­down on sexual violence.

The Tribune joined the police on Saturday night for a briefing on “Operation Vigilant,” a new initiative designed to protect women and girls from harassment and violence in busy night-time areas.

The Operation, which has been trialled in south London, is now being launched in Islington and neighbouring Camden before being rolled out across the rest of the capital.

It uses a combination of uniformed and plain-clothes officers to carry out patrols in areas outside nightclubs, bars and pubs to identify people who may be displaying signs of predatory behaviour.

Academic studies have shown that people who commit violence against women and girls often display certain concerning behaviour patterns in the lead-up to committing crimes.

At the briefing, officers were trained to recognise these behaviours, which include “loitering around without a legitimate reason, [or] making unwanted contact, sexualised or misogynistic comments towards persons they don’t know,” according to Detective Inspector Tony Brownlee, who is leading the operation.

Other warning signs include “stalking and harassing behaviour, and in the worst case scenario, possession of items indicative of preparing to commit sexual offences,” D.I. Brownlee said.

Studies also show that contextual factors – such as deteriorating mental health, the loss of a job or the break-up of a relationship – also make a person more likely to commit an offence.

Plainclothes officers trained to detect concerning behaviour are now being sent to areas with a busy nightlife, such as Upper Street and Islington High Street. All officers work in pairs.

Dressed to “blend in” with partygoers, these undercover police are on the lookout for people lurking near clubs, pubs, bars and alleyways.

Anyone identi­fied as posing a potential risk to women and girls is brought to the attention of uniformed police nearby.

Officers in uniform approach potential perpetrators, take their details and ask them to move on. Officers activate their body-worn video cameras to record the encounter.

According to DI Brownlee, the immediate aim of the Operation is to protect women from predatory behaviour. A secondary aim is to create a database of potential offenders in Islington and Camden.

“What you start to build is some corporate memory… so you’ve got some intelligence around that crime type,” he said.

“The police are very good and if they’ve got a problem somewhere, they’ll flood that area with police officers and then you don’t have that problem while the police officers are there, but as soon as you remove that resource, the problem just comes back.”

Deployments are told to focus on specific venues around closing time. “It’s kicking-out times at big venues: that’s when we see the spike in offend­ing,” DI Brownlee said.

When the operation was trialled in south London, officers saw a “30 per cent reduction in violence against women and girls linked to the night-time economy. It’s proven, it’s worked every time they’ve deployed it,” DI Brownlee said.

Officers, who were posted around Camden and Islington, worked until 7am on Sunday morning. In its initial stages, the operation will run on one weekend evening a month, with officers volunteering to pick up an overtime shift on top of their normal working hours.

DI Brownlee hopes the scheme will run every weekend when funding is available.

The force has come under intense scrutiny in recent years following the murder of Sarah Everard by serving police officer Wayne Couzens in 2020, along with the serious sexual offences committed by David Carrick and numerous other officers.

As the Met grapples with the legacy of these crimes, it has been reported that officers are seeking to prioritise “disruptive tactics” against those who perpetuate violence against women and girls.

“The reality is, that if you’re going to tackle violence against women and girls, it’s not actually women and girls that are the problem. The problem is misogyny,” DI Brownlee said.