Two years after the launch of a public transport safety tool, advocates say harassment is still going unreported
By Gabriela RahardjaIn short:
It's been two years since Victoria Police launched STOPIT, a service allowing public transport users to report anti-social behaviour and sexual harassment on public transport.
Police say the service has resulted in 3,000 reports statewide, leading to 60 police investigations and 33 people being charged with sexual offences.
What's next?
Police say the service will remain ongoing and that there are more plans to promote it to the public, however advocates fear incidents are still being under-reported.
Lia Vandersant and her assistance dog Bella regularly commute by tram to get around their neighbourhood in Melbourne's inner suburbs.
In April this year, the 75-year-old retiree jumped on the number 11 tram to pick up an item from a shop in Fitzroy, when she said she got the feeling she was being "stalked" by a man she did not know.
Ms Vandersant said she was standing near the carriage door, when the man, who was seated, started making hostile remarks about her dog.
Feeling uncomfortable, Ms Vandersant said she decided to get off the tram early.
"I got off the tram and he goes 'Oh this is my stop too'," she said.
"So I jumped back on the tram, and then he goes 'Oh no, no, I made a mistake' and jumped back on."
Ms Vandersant said she then attempted to leave the tram again, when the driver closed the doors behind her — leaving the man inside.
"He became really abusive, swearing at the driver," she said.
Ms Vandersant said the incident, which happened a few days after six people were killed in the Bondi Junction shopping centre stabbing in Sydney, left her feeling "incredibly vulnerable".
"I just sort of like no-one was going to help me, and being an old woman wasn't going to help me," she said.
Thousands of complaints received by police public transport service
Ms Vandersant is not alone.
Two years ago, Victoria Police launched STOPIT — a service allowing commuters to report anti-social behaviour and sexual harassment on public transport via text.
Police said since then the service had received almost 3,000 notifications statewide, leading to over 60 police investigations and resulting in 33 people being charged with sexual offences.
Transit Safety Division Inspector Mark Zervaas said the service was established to help victims and bystanders "feel empowered" to notify police when an unacceptable behaviour occurred inside trains, trams, and buses.
But experts said they feared the incidents being reported via STOPIT were just the tip of the iceberg, and that many incidents on public transport were still going unreported.
Advocates say trust in authorities among barriers to reporting harassment, assault
A 2023 report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) measured the general feeling of safety of Australians aged over 18 years when using public transport after dark as part of the Personal Safety Survey.
The report showed that women felt more unsafe than men when travelling alone.
A larger proportion of women aged between 18 and 24 reported feeling unsafe than other age groups (32 per cent), and a higher proportion of women living with disability felt unsafe (34 per cent) compared to those not living with disability (19 per cent).
Dr Zoë Condliffe is the founder of She's a Crowd, an Australian-based crowdsourcing platform that allows victim-survivors of gendered-based violence to anonymously share their stories.
Since 2018, She's a Crowd has received about 120,000 stories about gender-based violence from around the world.
Dr Condliffe said there were many barriers preventing people from coming forward about incidents they had experienced, and that she believed the majority went unreported.
She said one barrier to reporting was mistrust towards authorities, with people either fearing their story would not be "taken seriously" or thinking the reporting process was too "complex".
"You become very traumatised, because you had this awful experience and then you experienced either not being believed, or you had to rehash your story," she said.
Dr Jessica Ison, a senior lecturer at the Reducing Gender-Based Violence Research Group at La Trobe University, said that lack of trust was also experienced by other groups experiencing inequality, such as Indigenous Australians and people with disability.
"If they do go to the police, they probably won't get a response or if they do, it can be further traumatising," Dr Ison said.
"If [victim-survivors] went further through the criminal justice system at every point, it was difficult for them, they'd often drop out and not continue the process of going through the courts."
When it came to STOPIT, Jessica Broadbent from the Public Transport Users Association said the main drawback of the service was the absence of live monitoring.
"Unfortunately, you can really only report something after it's happened," she said.
"Being in a train, there's quite a long way between stations, and you're locked into whoever is in that carriage with you … if something is going wrong, that can feel very dangerous."
STOPIT shouldn't replace triple-0 in emergencies, police say
A Victoria Police spokesperson said the STOPIT service does not replace triple-0, and that it was designed "to remove barriers and gather information about matters that largely go unreported".
"The service provides several disclaimers before, during and after which clearly states it is not to be used if an urgent response is required," the spokesperson said.
"If users click ‘YES’ to needing immediate assistance they are instantly re-directed to a Triple Zero (000) button and can call from there."
Inspector Zervaas said STOPIT reports came directly from commuters to police, where a "dedicated triage team" was tasked with following up reports.
"[The team] then refer that to a dedicated sexual offence team … to determine whether that person wished to make a formal complaint or wish … to take no further action," he said.
Victoria Police said they were continuously working with the Department of Transport and Planning "to improve the safety of the public".
"In addition to STOPIT, Protection Service Officers (PSOs) are assigned to keep the community safe across the public transport system," police said.
"We deploy 1,200 PSOs to 217 railway stations, Monday through to Sunday," Mr Zervaas said.
He said when STOPIT notified police about incidents, PSOs could be sent to the location of the incident to prevent individuals from reoffending.
The Department of Transport and Planning said they "work closely" with the state's public transport operators and Victoria Police to maintain the safety of commuters and employees.
"Any form of harassment on the network is unacceptable and will not be tolerated," a department spokesperson said.
Mr Zervaas said STOP IT would remain an ongoing service, and that there were plans to further promote it to the public.
Safety from the ground up
After the tram incident, Ms Vandersant shared her experience in a Facebook group, where other users commented on her post sharing similar experiences on Melbourne's tram lines.
Ms Vandersant said she would like to see a "grassroots movement" where bystanders could call out unwanted behaviours without jeopardising their own safety.
"We need some sort of solution that doesn't endanger anyone but makes the women feel safe," she said.
After negative experiences on public transport, Dr Ison said individuals tended to become more vigilant of their surroundings in an effort called "safety work".
"I think women and other minorities are already doing this … [finding] other women and [sitting] next to them … looking for each other and keeping an eye out for each other as a way of keeping safe," she said.
Dr Condliffe said ultimately, police needed more survivor-centric and trauma-informed training.
"The police need to be a place where survivors can go to report to feel safe," she said.
She said she believed her platform had given victim-survivors a "collective power" to share about the incidents they may otherwise never report.
"[The platform] is a way to communicate the message, which is that … no matter where you are, this is happening and you're not alone," she said.
"We've got power in numbers. So together, we can make change, and people I think, really resonate with that."