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MBTA: Anti-grope ad campaign worked; new one to start
By adamg on Sun, 11/01/2009 - 10:32am
The MBTA says an anti-groping ad campaign that started last year has resulted in more arrests - and more women coming forward with complaints about gropers:
In the 18 months since the first campaign was launched in April 2008, Transit Police made 28 arrests for Indecent Assault and Battery - a 40% increase over arrests made for the same offense in the 18 months before April 2008. Efforts to encourage more victims to report such incidents have also been successful. The 99 reports to Transit Police since April 2008 represent a 32% increase over the number of reports made in the 18 months leading up to the launch of the campaign.
On Wednesday, the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center will honor the T for its campaign, even as new ads and placards begin to go up to remind people that sexual harassment is a crime and that undercover T cops - and surveillance cameras - are everywhere:
NOTE: The subways depicted in the ads may or may not actually show T trains. Spokesman Joe Pesaturo says that to save money, the MBTA marketing department used stock photos. For example, the train in that "surveillance" ad at the top of this post doesn't actually depict an MBTA train. Click for a larger view - London, maybe?
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Comments
I would agree with
I would agree with London:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LU1967ts-in...
I don't get how buying stock
I don't get how buying stock photos is cheaper than taking your own photos. Hello?! You OWN the fricking T! Whatever...
I think Pesaturo was just afraid his photo crew would get hassled by MBTA cops for taking pictures on T property.
well, you would probably
well, you would probably have to hire a bunch of extras to pretend they were riding the T. People who ride regularly probably would not take kindly to seeing their face up in an ad about sexual assault, especially without giving permission. So, a stock photo would be cheaper.
Not just Boston
I noticed that Portland, DC, and LA were all using the same stock photos to promote their plainclothes operations to the public.
I suspect that London got a bunch of actors and actresses to sit for these photos and has now made them available to other transit systems because the people in them know they are in them.
Bravo!
I had no idea how much women were begin harassed on Boston trains until recently. This is completely unacceptable. Thrilled to hear the campaign is helping.
rb
London it is.
London it is.
Welcome to the surveillance society
Using a surveillance photo from London is ironic. Perhaps, Boston, too, can have a thousand millions cameras, just like London. There were five of them on the last MBTA bus I rode. It seems we are well on our way.
Undercover T cops? How about
Undercover T cops? How about some uniformed T cops? Or rather, *any* uniformed T cops? The T apparently is committed to stopping any rare, weird crime, but not to doing basic policing that would make its system even vaguely appealing.
Ad campaign boosts groping
Seriously: the reporter assumes the amount of groping has remained constant and that the increase in reports is caused by the ad campaign. But what if actual groping is up 100% and the reports are up 32%. There's no way to know.
And did you check to see if there's more aggressive deployment of transit police? More cops, more reports on the spot by women. It's election season you know for at least two law and order folks.