THE Northern Echo headed into Darlington town centre on Friday night (March 4) to accompany police officers on patrol, chat with door staff and licensees, and ask women how safe they generally feel when out on the town at the weekend.
Extra police officers have been deployed in Darlington to help keep women safer at night since just before Christmas.
A dedicated rapid response vehicle has been introduced in the town centre on Friday and Saturday nights to enable officers to swiftly respond to vulnerability and issues of predatory behaviour at any of the town centre pubs and clubs.
The officers are working with door staff and licensees, who alert them to any vulnerable people and suspicious, predatory or harassing behaviour within their venues, allowing the officers to intervene more quickly.
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At about 8.45pm we parked up on Skinnergate with Sergeant Matt Plumb, and headed to Number 1 Bar to have a chat with doorman Chris Banks, who had undertaken the training for Industry Authorised Door Staff.
Chris said: “We don’t get a lot of trouble. I think people aren’t really aware of it (the extra patrolling to deter violence or harassment against women and girls) until they need it.”
At 9pm we went to The Hoskins and spoke with manager, Helen Douglas, who said: “I do feel reassured that the police are about on a weekend because most of my staff are female so it’s good that if something happened, we can just shout them over and they’ll deal with it.”
As this venue generally attracts a younger crowd, we spoke to sisters Kathryn Bellamy and Ellie Robinson about their experience when out in Darlington.
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Kathryn, 24, said: “I think Darlington is pretty safe, much more than other places nearby like Newcastle, I’ve never had any problems really when out in Darlington.”
Ellie, 18, agreed that she would feel confident approaching a police officer if a problem arose.
We were then joined by officers, Katie Warren and Mark Rogers.
A drunken argument then broke out outside The Hoskins which Sgt Matt Plumb and Officer Mark Rogers helped to diffuse.
At 9.30pm we spoke to doorman, Paul Simmons also known as 'The Happy Doorman', outside The Tanners Hall on Skinnergate.
Paul said: “The main problems we get is people who’ve had too much to drink trying to get in or people who haven’t got their ID who are trying it on. I’ve also worked in Newcastle and Stockton and usually get more problems there.”
Without permission from Wetherspoon, we were unable to go inside and ask women how safe they felt on night out.
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PC Paul Foley, said: “Nights out have changed over the years.
"These days younger people tend to come out later after drinking at home so we just keep and eye on anyone who looks like they’ve had too much to drink, and we’ll take them home to make sure they’re safe.”
At about 10pm it was time to go to The Boot and Shoe on the market square where we spoke with general manager, Chris Metters.
We asked Chris about some typical and extreme examples of what can occur on a weekend at the pub.
He said: “The main problems would probably be people getting aggressive because they’re drunk but we deal with that.
"On the extreme end though, anything from fights to people getting glassed. It's mainly fine though, despite its reputation.”
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Inside The Boot and Shoe we spoke with Sophie Johnstone, 27, who said she would feel confident approaching a member of staff or a police officer if something were to happen on a night out, and Oissene Purser, 24, who agreed that police officers seemed approachable, and she wouldn’t hesitate to ask one for help.
The initiative is just one of several interventions being carried out in Darlington after the town was awarded £450,000 from the Home Office’s Safer Streets 3 Fund to help people, in particular women and girls, feel safer in public spaces.
It follows work carried out last year by Durham Constabulary through the Call It Out survey, which aimed to gauge how safe women and girls feel and identify improvements they wanted to see.
Almost 1,300 people responded to the survey, which found that women felt significantly less safe on an evening when out and about in their neighbourhood or town centre.
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