Trial to catch street sex pests ends with only one charge

A trial in Utrecht that gives city councillors the power to report cases of sexual harassment they witness on the city's streets to the police has so far resulted in only one indictment.

The number of reports has increased since the police began their work in July, following the enactment of a law that criminalizes sexual harassment of people by hissing, intimidation, sexual remarks or following in public places.

In July and August, 35 and 30 incidents were reported to the police by citizens, respectively, and in May and June the figure was 9 and 14, respectively, possibly due to publicity about the new law, the council said.

The trial, in which a number of specially trained prison directors will assess the optimal implementation of the new law, will run until June 2025.

During five incidents of harassment in different parts of the city, guards detected on average one or two incidents that bordered on intimidation, including hissing, staring and lewd remarks or comments from men. However, according to the city council, these incidents did not result in a report to the police.

Two violations of the law by minors resulted in a warning, the council said. The only report that police investigated concerned the intimidation of one of the council's supervisors, who was sexually abused outside of working hours.

The aim is to catch the perpetrators red-handed, which makes police work “complicated” under the new law, a council spokesman told broadcaster NOS. “They have to go through a whole checklist and then check whether an act is punishable.”

Prison governors and police unions had previously expressed doubts about the law's feasibility. The police union ACP described the additional task as a “big challenge” for prison governors and said it would not be easy for them to catch street sex pests in the act.