Project Guardian
initiative to combat sexual harassment on public transport in London
Project Guardian is a joint initiative between British Transport Police (BTP), the Metropolitan Police Service ("the Met"), the City of London Police, and Transport for London (TfL), which aims to combat and increase reporting of sexual harassment on public transport in London. The initiative was inspired by a similar operation in Boston, Massachusetts, and began after a TfL survey revealed that 15% of women who used London's public transport had experienced some form of unwanted sexual behaviour, but that the overwhelming majority of incidents were not reported to the police. Project Guardian aimed to increase reporting and reduce instances of such behaviour.
As part of the project, the police created a confidential hotline and text-messaging service and used social media to raise awareness and encourage reporting. They also staged several "weeks of action", involving increased patrolling of public transport by both uniformed and plain-clothed police officers, including a joint initiative with police officers in several cities in North America, several of which resulted in multiple arrests. In August 2014, the BTP recorded a 21% increase in sex offences, a rise which was attributed partially to increased reporting as result of Project Guardian.
Background
Project Guardian was launched in April 2013, after a survey conducted by Transport for London (TfL) reported widespread fear of sexual harassment among women who use London's public transport, and that 15% of female respondents had encountered unwanted sexual behaviour while using public transport, though around 90% of incidents went unreported. It is a joint venture between British Transport Police (BTP), which polices the rail and metro networks; the Metropolitan Police Service's Safer Transport Command, which is responsible for policing of buses in most of London; the City of London Police; and TfL.
The project was launched with the aim of encouraging the reporting of incidents and creating an atmosphere on public transport which does not tolerate sexual harassment. Addressing the issue of "victim blaming" (in which victims are held partially or entirely responsible for their harassment) BTP Inspector Ricky Twyford, manager of Project Guardian, stated "We don't want anyone to have to change their behaviour to prevent becoming a victim; the only people whose behaviour should change are those who are perpetrating this activity".
The project, reported to be the largest campaign of its kind, was inspired by a similar initiative run by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) in Boston which doubled the level of reporting of sexual offences on the MBTA's network.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18161277. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2014 and 2013.
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This entry incorporates text from “Project Guardian” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.