Safety in our night-time economy

We are committed to making the night-time economy (NTE) a safe place for all in Bath. In particular, we have a focus on ensuring Women and Girls are free from harassment, violence and other offences associated with the NTE.

Further to this, with the academic year fast approaching, we are working with partners to prepare for the arrival of students back into the city.

Over the summer we have already been working hard to achieve this:

• We have worked with the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner to launch extensive, free training for those that work in our Night Time Economy. This training focuses on identifying vulnerabilities and becoming an active bystander. This training is still available and you can learn more here: Free Bystander Intervention Training for night time economy workers | OPCC for Avon and Somerset (avonandsomerset-pcc.gov.uk)
• The Bath Neighbourhood Teams have completed ‘Project Vigilant’ training, enabling us to undertake deployments specifically designed to target perpetrators of sexual harassment and violence in the NTE. Learn more about Project Vigilant here: Project Vigilant – preventing sexual violence | College of Policing

We have a variety of engagements coming up and we will provide updates here and on our Social Media pages.

Actions

• 8 December 2024
  

  Week of Action – 2nd to 8th December 2024.

  During the first week of December, together with a number of extra resources from across the Force we delivered a comprehensive week of action focused on VAWG and the Night Time Economy.

  The results included:

  • 13 arrests
  • 5 drug seizures (including 150 wraps of crack cocaine)
  • 1 County Line taken out
  • 1 Rambo knife seized
  • 35 alcohol licensing visits
  • 13 VAWG awareness events
  • 7 visits to high-harm victims and offenders with IOM (Integrated Offender Management)

   

  Full Story here:

  Proactive police operation tackles sexual violence in Bath nightlife | Avon and Somerset Police

• 4 October 2024
  

  September was a busy month for the Bath City Centre NPT as we welcomed a new cohort of students to the city, and undertook a number of engagement activities such as:

  • presenting workshops with Bath BID, teaching over 150 students and students union staff how they can keep themselves and others safe while out at night
  • holding a meeting with SU Officers at Bath Spa University Students’ Union to share all the projects we are working on that students might be interested in, including #WalkAndTalk and #StreetSafe
  • attending freshers’ events at Bath College , Bath Spa University , University of Bath and Norland College alongside the Bath Safe Bus, promoting this amazing project and providing crime prevention advice
  • continuing to promote the free Bystander Intervention Training offered by the OPCC to all night-time economy workers
  • joining Bath and North East Somerset Council, Bath BID and the Student Community Partnership on a round of joint Licensing Visits in the City Centre during #SpikingIntensificationWeek. We spoke to venue management teams about what they’re doing to keep their customers safe, made sure they were complying with relevant licensing legislation, and promoted Licensing SAVI, the only police-accredited safety award scheme for Licensed Premises
  • completing our first #ProjectVigilant deployment, resulting in two positive outcomes

  All told, we engaged with around 600 people over the month around the theme of night-time economy safety.