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Reporting Harassers
In addition to having assertive verbal responses, individuals who experience street harassment may be able to report harassers to the police, a transit worker, or to the harasser's employer.
Reporting harassers to the police
If the harasser is threatening, touching or following you, flashing or masturbating at you, or persisting in more benign forms of harassment, you can report him to the police or a security officer. Since you do not know his name or where he lives, taking down a physical description or snapping a picture of him and a description of where it occurred will help your case if you report it. If there are other people nearby, make sure they realize the man’s behavior is unwelcome and harassing and see if they would be willing to be a witness to your story for the police. While I have read stories of women who had police officers tell them things like “what did they expect?” or to “get a gun,” and while women of color and/or transwomen in particular may feel uncomfortable reporting harassers to the police, there are women who have had success with this tactic. Here are three examples.
“I was molested on the W train between Lexington/59th St. and Queensboro Plaza. I wasn’t able to collect my senses and get off to report the crime or report it immediately after, but I reported it to the NYC sex crimes hot line two days later and was able to go to the precinct and actually identify the perpetrator out of a mugshot. Turns out he was arrested once before, three years ago, for a sex crime. I encourage women to report the crimes, no matter how small you may think they are.”
“This happened twice by the same jerky guys. I was walking around my college campus and two guys sped passed me in their car and screamed 'whore' at me. That was uncomfortable. The second time I was with friends, so that was less uncomfortable, and we told campus police. The campus police eventually caught the guys and threatened to arrest them if they were found on campus again (they weren't students). That was cool.”
“I was alone and waiting for my mother to come home. I was outside without a key to the house. A strange man drove back and forth in front of the house. Next thing I know he gets out of the car totally naked and while looking at me starts to masturbate… I finally tried the back door of the house because I was frightened and did not know what this stranger would do. It was unlocked, thanks Mom! I went in and he took off. I called police and they came out. This stupid man kicked out his wallet upon exiting the car and didn't know it. The police caught him and I pressed charges. This stupid man was an exhibitionist. He had done this before.”
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Reporting harassers to a transit authority worker
If the harasser is at a bus stop, subway station, or train depot, or if he is on any form of public transportation, report him to the transit authority employee or file a complaint through an online or phone-based system (most major transit organizations have such a form or 800 number). In New York City, you can call NYPD’s Sex Crimes Report Line at 212.267.RAPE to report any form of sexual harassment experienced on the transit system. Here are two stories from two women who reported their harassers.
“I once had a young man enter my el train car sit next to me, stare at me and touch himself through his pants. I wanted to call him out on it, but I was alone (besides him) in the train car and feared assault. I pretended not to notice and got off at the next stop. I reported the incident to the station attendant, giving a detailed description of the man's dress and my train car's number. I am assuming the station attendant reported the incident, but I am unsure if the man was caught. The man was well dressed and seemed stable, but his behavior was very intimidating and his eye contact with intentional and disturbing. I knew my discomfort was turning him on.”
“I had a person masturbating next to me on the bus. I told the driver and he kicked him off. I contacted bus authorities afterwards about it.”
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Reporting harassers to their employer
If the harasser works for an identifiable company, call or write the company to let them know that their employees are harassing women on the job. If possible, let them know the location and the time of day that the employee was harassing you so they can better identify which employee it is and hold the employee responsible for his actions. Here are a few success stories illustrating how one can do this.
“I was recently shouted at by two men in a ConEdison truck. I reported them to ConEdison (as they were using work hours and a ConEd vehicle to harass women), and when I thanked the operator for taking my complaint seriously, she said, “It is my PLEASURE to write this incident report--we take this very seriously as a company, and I take it very seriously as a woman.” She was awesome. The creepy old men in the truck? Not so much….The guys got reamed by their employer, and a woman from corporate called me to let me know about it.”
“There was a security guy at a construction site at my university. He would sit/stand at a narrow pathway that I had to take to my lab every day (I'm a PhD student). He seemed a bit intimidating and stared a bit but I ignored him or took other paths to my lab sometimes. He was a bully to male university staff too sometimes. One time as my fiancé and I were walking through the path he told me that I looked like Heidi Fleiss. Later that day he got in an argument with my fiancé and told him to go “Fuck your Heidi Fleiss girlfriend in the ass.” I was afraid to take that path after this incident and would get very anxious walking to my lab. I went straight to the university authorities and after trying to give me useless solutions (just take another path, etc.), they got rid of him.”
“In the early ’80’s at an Ivy League college where I was a lecturer, I was harassed when my daily route took me past a university construction site. I took note of the date, time, place, exact occurrence, and the fact that I felt demeaned and unsafe (that is very important). I noted the name of the contractor (usually posted on a sign at the site). I then went to talk to the head of Buildings and Grounds for the university - the people who let the contracts for buildings - and told him of the incidents. I made it clear that I was determined to put an end to this for myself and female students. I had to go no further; the harassment came to an immediate halt. I still remember walking past those guys at the university construction site immediately after my meeting. They silently looked at me; they were now fearful of saying a word. In a few days women passing by were simply ignored, just like the men passing by.”
My forthcoming book Stop Street Harassment: Making Public Places Safe and Welcoming for Women (August 2010) includes further information on rerporting harassers. Also see Sue Wise and Liz Stanley, Georgie Porgie: Sexual Harassment in Everyday Life (London: Pandora, 1987) and Martha Langelan, Back Off! How to confront and stop sexual harassment and harassers (New York: Fireside Press, 1993).
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