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drinkanddrugsnews
| October 2014
Profile |
Alex Feis-Bryce
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
Street wise
T
he links between problem drug use and street sex work are well
known, with street sex workers particularly vulnerable to violence
and assault, most of which has tended to go unreported. Run by the
UK Network of Sex Work Projects (UKNSWP), the National Ugly Mugs
(NUM) scheme was launched in 2012 with the aim of warning sex
workers about dangerous individuals and helping the police gather
intelligence on serial offenders. This year the scheme was not only winner of the
Paolo Pertica Award – which recognises innovation and contributions to public
health in a criminal justice context – but also won in the ‘small charity, big
achiever’ category of the Third Sector awards.
‘We were quite surprised as that was a really glitzy award ceremony, and we’re
not used to getting that kind of mainstream attention,’ says NUM’s director of
services, Alex Feis-Bryce.
Around 20,000 sex workers are now engaged with the scheme, with more than
1,000 incidents reported so far, and while all but a few victims are happy to share
information anonymously with the police only 25 per cent are prepared to make a
formal statement. ‘That means the police are getting vital intelligence they’d
otherwise be unaware of,’ he says.
The ‘ugly mugs’ concept originated in Australia in the mid-1980s, when sex
workers in Victoria began circulating descriptions of violent men. While the first
UK schemes – in Birmingham and Edinburgh – began at the end of that decade,
NUM is still the only nationwide, integrated scheme of its kind.
‘The UK Network of Sex Work Projects, ever since they were formed in 2002,
have been advocating for a National Ugly Mugs scheme,’ says Feis-Bryce. ‘The
Home Office funded a development project, which was basically a big consultation,
and then they provided funding for a one-year pilot – it was three months to set
up and operational for nine months after that.’ The pilot ended in March 2013, and
the scheme has run independently since then.
‘So it’s the first time there’s ever been government funding involved, and the
first time it’s ever been national,’ he says. ‘Obviously we’re completely independent
of the police, but we do have formal links in terms of sharing data – if we’ve got
consent – and that kind of thing. We’re the first of its kind in the world, really.’
The scheme also gets funding from the police, he says, but on an ad-hoc basis.
‘There’s quite a lot of devolved power to every police force, which means we have
to go to each individual force, and there are 43 in England and Wales.’ The scheme
does have a good working partnership with the police, however, although the
partnership is stronger in some areas than others. ‘Some force areas value the
scheme more than others, I suppose, but a lot of it is just getting in there and
raising awareness.’
Was it easy to establish those relationships – were the police onside from the
beginning? ‘We had top-level senior police officers supporting the scheme from
the start,’ he says. ‘Part of the consultation process was with the police and the
National Crime Agency’s serious crimes analysis section, so that helped us, and
ACPO [Association of Chief Police Officers] were also very supportive. But it’s still a
slightly different relationship with every force. That’s one of the challenges –
knowing exactly who to go to, and how it’s going to be dealt with.’
*****
A number of high-profile cases over the years have highlighted poor police
attitudes when it comes to investigating violence against sex workers. Are those
views on the way out now? ‘We still encounter it every now and then, I have to