Police urging young women in Lincolnshire to report instances where they have been followed
It's after a study found almost a third had experienced something like that but many think nothing can be done
Research has revealed many young women and girls in Lincolnshire have been followed by older men or stared at in public but they don't report it because they think nothing can be done.
The study found almost a third had experienced something like that.
Lincolnshire police are urging them to come forward and understand how to report crimes.
The Violence Against Women and Girls Lead Detective Superintendent Suzanne Davies tells us why it's important people tell Police:
"My concern is people know that we can't solve every single crime. But actually our job is always there to protect the public and serve the public and do the very best we can.
"And if we don't know that this is happening then we can't do anything about it at all.
"It's young girls that are telling us that this is happening to them.
"We did a serious violence and a violence against women and girls survey last summer and we had over 3,000 responses.
"The girls which were 0-19 years old tell us they don't report all offences.
"Some of the reasons are not knowing how to report and not thinking it will be taken seriously.
Detective Superintendent Suzanne Davies tells us what they can do:
"It might be part of intelligence gathering and actually with other information that we've got we can make places safer.
"And sometimes it's about feelings of safety so we can design out problem areas as well.
"For me I would just encourage people to report it to police."