A new Police Scotland campaign encourages men to challenge their friends who cross the line with sexist language, harassment or worse, as a senior officer said the message must apply just as much to policemen as it does the public.
Amid growing concerns that the force has a systemic problem with misogynist bullying, DCC Malcolm Graham told the Guardian that Police Scotland needed to be “the safest place to work” for women, and insisted that officers are already coming forward to report unacceptable behaviour by colleagues.
Police Scotland won widespread praise when it launched its That Guy campaign in October 2021. The hard-hitting advert spliced together clips of young men describing escalating sexual aggression, concluding: “most men don’t look in the mirror and see a problem, but it’s staring us right in the face”. This framing was especially welcomed after responses to the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer, which appeared to emphasise the need for women to protect themselves.
Released on Monday, the second iteration of the campaign offers a more conversational approach, filming a group of men, including leading Scottish sports and social media influencers, sitting around a pub table discussing how best to call out a friend’s bad behaviour.
Last year’s campaign was “a deliberate manifestation of a shift in our thinking”, said Graham, “where the responsibility for preventing crime should rest with the people who commit it”. This next stage is to ensure younger men – the campaign is targeted at the 18-35 age group, who are most likely to commit sexual offences – are “better equipped to take action”.
He acknowledges that these can be difficult messages for some people to accept, but insists that momentum is building. “[For] some people, the response might be ‘Wait a minute, not all men are rapists and abusers’. And of course, we know that. But what we’re saying is it takes all men to stand up and to be intolerant of the environments where abusive language and derogatory behaviour can persist without challenge.”
He is clear that such behaviour can have serious consequences: “If it’s not challenged, there will be a smaller number of people who will go on to commit these offences.”
This is a direct echo of Helena Kennedy’s working group, commissioned by the Scottish government to consider hate crimes against women and who earlier this year recommended a misogyny act for Scotland to crack down on street harassment, organised online hate and an onslaught of rape and disfigurement threats. A consultation on this bill is anticipated in the coming months.
But Police Scotland is coming to the end of a year that has seen several high-profile cases of misogynist bullying, ongoing criticism of how management deals with complaints, nearly £1m in compensation paid to a former firearms officer victimised by “horrific” boys’ club sexism in the force’s elite armed response unit. Another former officer is awaiting sentence for sexually assaulting a female colleague, four years after she made her initial complaint.
Asked whether he understood the charge of hypocrisy that the force was telling members of the public to behave themselves, while the force struggles to get its own house in order, Graham said “robust, genuine and long-term action” has been taken to change policing culture as well as improvements to complaints system, training and awareness-raising. He added: “When new recruits to Police Scotland start on day one, the standards and values of the organisation are made extremely clear.”
There is a close connection, he said, between the force’s treatment of women officers and its role in wider society. “Police Scotland needs to be the safest place to work, so the victims of serious sexual crime can have confidence when they’re coming forward, that we’re going to treat them with the respect dignity and understanding that they deserve.”
As much as he is saying “don’t be that guy” to the public, is he also addressing that to every male officer in Police Scotland? “Absolutely,” said Graham: “We’re doing an awful lot of work to ensure that the campaign is running throughout Police Scotland.”
The feedback thus far has been “universally positive”, and part of this has been that instances of inappropriate behaviour or harassment between colleagues are “often brought to our attention by other [officers]”.
“We’re absolutely committed to making sure that we stay the course with that as an organisation,” said Graham.
