London: A top police officer in London has warned of stringent actions against those who indulge themselves in "intense staring" and show behaviours that are unhealthy.
Numerous such cases of unhealthy sexual behaviour incidents are being reported in London Underground, following which Det Supt Sarah White, a senior British Transport Police (BTP) officer, has issued a warning to those, who indulge themselves in such activities.
"It's human nature to stare at things. However, it's very different when someone is staring, leering, or there's a sexual motivation," DS White told The Telegraph.
"We want to know about that staring because that is the behaviour that suggests to me that someone is thinking about a sexual behaviour that supports that staring," he added.
Warning further, he said, ''Such crimes would be recorded. We have had successful prosecutions in that field.''
As per the DailyMail, his comments came in response to a campaign that was launched last month by the Transport for London to raise awareness on "common examples" of harassment, including upskirting, catcalling and exposing among others.
As part of the campaign, posters were installed on trains, saying, ''Intrusive staring of a sexual nature is sexual harassment and is not tolerated.''
As per the Telegraph, which quoted data from Office for National Statistics (ONS), reports of sexual harassment have spiked by 175 per cent in Brittan's transport network since the end of the Covid lockdown.
From 2020-2021 march, 995 reports of sexual offences were recorded in the Tube compared to 361 cases in the financial year ending March 2019.