Vigilant Wiltshire

Project Vigilant

What is Project Vigilant?

Project Vigilant proactively challenges behaviour that make women and girls feel unsafe or intimidated and aims to intercept predatory behaviour before a crime is committed. This proactive initiative is purely focused on offenders, and we do not want women or girls to have to change their behaviour.

Thames Valley Police launched Project Vigilant in 2019 in response to increased reports of stranger rape offences in Oxford. In 2021, Wiltshire Police adopted this offender-focused initiative in a bid to make Wiltshire a hostile place for sexual predators.

Now, Wiltshire Police are one of the leading police forces taking Project Vigilant further by providing training to other police forces, providing training to new police officers joining the force, and with the introduction of drones during a deployment.

Watch our video here

Project Vigilant video

What happens during a Project Vigilant deployment?

High visibility and plain clothes officers patrol hotspot locations for stranger rape and serious sexual offences, which are informed by intelligence. Officers on the ground, CCTV teams and the Drone Unit look out for signs of a sexual predator. This behaviour includes a man or group of men:

Loitering in doorways, alleyways or on the street
Watching or staring at women who are alone or in groups
Making sexually inappropriate comments or catcalling
Approaching lone or intoxicated women
Invading a woman's personal space - e.g. cuddling, touching, being physically dominating or leading a woman away
Approaching a woman at a bar or table and continuing to talk to her despite being asked to leave her alone
Stalking or following women
Filming or taking photos of women or children

Upon noticing predatory behaviour, uniformed officers intervene and take the appropriate action. Officers can use powers including a Section 35 Dispersal Order, under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, to remove men displaying predatory behaviour from a designated area for up to 48 hours. If the person further attempts to enter the designated area, they can be arrested.

What is the role of intelligence?

Intelligence Analysts and Researchers gather intelligence from a range of sources to inform when and where Project Vigilant deployments take place. The team map locations of concern, as well as draw links between reported offences to build an accurate intelligence picture.

It is vital that the public report instances of predatory behaviour they have witnessed or experienced, as well as locations they find intimidating, to the police to enable us to target our response in the correct locations and prevent sexual offences from taking place.

You may not always receive a response from us when you submit intelligence, however rest assured that we do act on your information.

Any intelligence can be reported here.

What do I do if I witness or experience predatory sexual behaviour?

For information about support services available if you have experienced rape or sexual assault, please see the 'Getting support' section below.

If you witness any of the predatory behaviours explained above, please report this to the police, security staff, or anonymously via Crimestoppers. If you would like to submit intelligence to the police about an individual displaying predatory behaviour and you are not in immediate danger, you can do so using the reporting link in the 'Getting support' section below.

How do the police follow-up on people displaying predatory behaviour?

Following a Project Vigilant deployment, all of the intelligence gathered is analysed, and individuals displaying predatory behaviour are ranked in accordance with their risk to sexually offend. Following some interactions, officers carry out a home visit to further assess the risk posed to the wider public and ensure the appropriate safeguarding is in place if necessary.

To manage offenders in the longer term, in May 2025, we launched a MATAC, a multi-agency tasking and co-ordination process. This presents an opportunity for us to join our partner agencies to target, disrupt and engage with sexual offenders who pose the most risk to women and girls in our communities.

This is in line with our current commitment with the national Operation Soteria, which aims to increase the number of adult rape and serious sexual assault cases reaching charge, and deliver sustained improvement in the criminal justice response to rape and serious sexual assault cases. Part of our improvements to rape and sexual assault investigations have included adopting a more suspect-focused approach and focusing on perpetrator behaviours to prevent crimes of this nature from taking place.

Vigilant Communities - how can I support this project?

Our Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Team have been training up members of the community as 'Vigilant Guardians' over recent months as part of the wider Vigilant Communities project. Vigilant Guardians are trusted figures trained to:

Identify early signs of predatory behaviours
Encourage those they work with to report predatory behaviour, and highlighting reporting methods
Help raise awareness of what constitutes predatory behaviour

Intelligence gathered by Vigilant Guardians actively helps make their community safer. Resulting action the police can take includes enforcing licensed venue bans through Pubwatch and issuing Community Protection Warnings.

Members of the public eligible to become a Vigilant Guardian include anyone: