Community concerns cause extra patrols in cruising area
5 Nov 2009
Greater Manchester Police act on the rise in robberies and complaints from Manchester's canal area - but what are the laws around cruising?
An operation has been launched following recent complaints from local businesses and members of the public. After listening to community concerns, officers will be patrolling the area throughout the day where men have been seen meeting to have sex along the canal tow path.
There have also been a number of robberies and assaults reported in the same place and as such officers will be patrolling to prevent this
So, what are the laws around Cruising? Click >>>
The City Centre Neighbourhood Policing Team is offering reassurance to businesses and the local community with additional high-visibility patrols and ensuring that the area is no longer used for this kind of public activity. A clean up operation will also take place with the help of Manchester City Council to improve lighting, cleanliness and signage will be placed in the Undercroft along the towpath.
Inspector Jo Marshall, from Manchester City Centre Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: "This operation will be treated sensitively and this should not be seen as an initiative that is solely targeting the gay community, the increase of activity in this area is effecting people going about their everyday business.''
"This is about acting on the concerns of the people who live and work in the area and about protecting vulnerable people. Our aim is to improve the area for everyone so that it is safe and free from crime."
The Lesbian & Gay Foundation will be providing outreach workers with this initiative to provide further support and information about canal and personal safety.
Last year a ‘cruising crackdown’ in the Ancoats area of Greater Manchester began to be enforced by local police teams with agencies such as Manchester City Council, Manchester Public Health Development Service, The Lesbian and Gay Foundation, who along with the LGBT Advisory Group let people know that Greater Manchester Police would be enforcing relevant offences following any complaints they received concerning outraging public indecency.
Andrew Gilliver, the LGF’s Communications Manager said: “Although the canal has traditionally been used as a popular cruising ground, the area has seen a lot of development over recent years...it is important that we respect these changes, and also respect the people who live and work within the vicinity.”
“We want to inform people who use this area that anyone found committing the offence of ‘outraging public decency’, which includes acts such as masturbation and sex in a public place will be arrested and taken to the nearest Police station. You will face a caution and for repeated offences possible six months imprisonment or a hefty fine.”
“LGF have liaised with the police and we believe that GMP are aware of the sensitive nature of many cruising activities and it is important that we inform men who use the canal for such activities that it is no longer a safe cruising area."
So, what are the laws around Cruising?
The Sexual Offences Act 2003, which prohibits "sexual activity in a public lavatory", has nothing to say about sex in other public places. However, anyone who engages in sex acts in public can find themselves charged with offences under the Public Order Act, if the police have sufficient evidence to convince a court of law that the activity was witnessed, (or there was a high likelihood of being witnessed), by a third party.
The attitude of the police to cruising at any given location varies, according to the time of the day or night, and the number of complaints from local residents and councillors. Occasionally, police will visit a cruising area to advise cruisers of the risk of homophobic attacks, and anyone seen to be involved in sexual behaviour will be asked to move on rather than being arrested.
Anyone who leaves evidence of sexual encounters, such as discarded lubricant and condom packets etc draws attention to the fact that the area is a public sex environment, even if no sexual activity has been seen. This can lead to complaints to the police and local council and an increased police presence.
What is "Outraging public decency"?
It is an offence at common law to commit an act of a lewd, obscene or disgusting nature and outrage public decency.
Penalty: unlimited imprisonment and / or unlimited fine
Offences under the Sexual Offences Act where registration may be required on the sex offenders register: -
Voyeurism
Observing people doing private acts for the purpose of sexual gratification.
Penalty: up to 2 years imprisonment and / or fine £5000
Sexual Assault
Touches another person for sexual purposes.
Penalty: up to 14 years imprisonment and / or fine £5000
Exposure
Exposes their genitals to another causing alarm or distress.
Penalty: up to 2 years imprisonment and / or fine £5000
For further information, please contact the City Centre Neighbourhood Policing Team on 0161 856 3221 or e-mail a1apt@gmp.police.uk to report crime, call police on 0161 872 5050 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111. All information will be treated in the strictest confidence.
LGBT POLICE ADVICE SURGERY: If you live in the Manchester area you can get information and advice from the Police Drop-in Surgery at the Lesbian and Gay Foundation every Thursday evening at 6pm-8pm otherwise telephone 0161 235 8035 (office hours) or the LGF Helpline 0845 330 3030 (6pm-10pm).
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the whole gay village needs to be looked at, sex under the canal has gone of for years and is not acceptable, the police need to do more to erradicate the problem. But in recent years their has been a rise in violent attacks, people selling drugs and not to mention the unsavory people that spike peoples drinks
Posted by stewart, 21/08/2010 8:10am (12 days ago)
My wife and I visted your beautiful City recently with our four primary school aged children ( ages 11, 9, and twins aged 8) not knowing the city we made a big mistake of walking from the bottom of the road with very lively street scene and all the gay bars to the canal towpath (as it appeared from the street map to offer the most direct route to our hotel). Because of the narrowness of the towpath we could not walk together, so I went in front with one twin and my wife with the other and with my oldest boy at the back. He was followed, being bumped several times from behind and then propostioned and harrassed by two men in thier 20's who made plain their intentions and then set about harrassing my 11 year old boy all the way to the NCP car park near our hotel. Despite stopping, turning around, putting the kids in the middle of us and trying to shake them off they kept following and harrassing us, sliding past then waiting at the next bridge to harrass us again. It was only when we got almost to the big main road in Ancoats and by our hotel that I threatend the men and they backed off. But frankly as an open minded gay friendly vistor to your lovely city I was shocked that men are openly harrassing 11 year old boys in this manner. It does your cause no good at all and I for one will be giving the area a miss in future visits. My son was traumatised by the experience and refuses to discuss anything to do with gay issues or homophobia now.
So I think that Chris below is absolutely spot on in his analysis and I would support a police presence there if it protects the vulnerable from abuse.
Posted by angus brown, 16/06/2010 5:22pm (3 months ago)
"doug" (04/04/2010 5:03pm), you're lucky I have the brains to realise you're probably a minority with your horribly selfish views. "everyone knows about it and if they dont like it they can very easily avoid it" - shocking. No, not everyone does know about it. I live the other side of Manchester (not originally from Manchester) and jog through the area. I also like walking along paths and canals in lots of cities. This is nothing to do with homophobia and everything to do with the fact I don't expect a public footpath to be blocked by 3 semi-naked men performing sex acts on a beautiful Sunday morning. It's even scarier when you realise that to get out you have to pass the 2 spotters the people had either side. The existence of muggers doesn't justify this. I reported what I witnessed to the Police before finding out just how big a problem it is and how little seems to have been achieved.
Posted by Chris Bowen, 19/04/2010 2:31pm (5 months ago)
I agree with kris. the canal has always been a cruising area, everyone knows about it and if they dont like it they can very easily avoid it. the police should be protecting the tax paying citizens that do use the canal towpath from the muggers and in recent weeks pickpockets that regularly prey on people who they know will be too afraid of the homophobic police response to report anything. two lads tried to mug me beside the canal during pride last year, but there was no way i was going to report it because i didnt want to admit that I had been down there. If the police do ever manage to move the cruising away from the traditional areas, all they will be doing is moving it to other probably much less suitable areas, possibly creating genuine problems with residents and businesses instead of the imagined ones that are currently being used as an excuse for homophobic persecution.
Posted by doug, 04/04/2010 5:03pm (5 months ago)
I think that the canal is really unsafe and people going down there are doing so at their own risk!
If you are going down there to socialise then that ISN'T illegal so there shouldn't be a problem. I honestly feel a 'clean up operation' is in everyones best interests but also other pressing issues.
Over the last few years, week by week you see more and more drug dealers offering drugs to memebers of the public. I think the state of the whole of canal street should be adressed, not just the canal!
Posted by kris, 17/01/2010 4:48pm (8 months ago)
id like to report a hate crime... see above article
Posted by mike, 26/11/2009 10:10am (9 months ago)
David L if you have never been down there and talked to people (and it sounds as if you haven't) how can you know their reasons for being there? I have gone down there, talked with and met people.
Have you ever been in a situation where you are living on benefits, £50 a week perhaps, longterm? If not, have you thought what options someone in that situation has for socialising and meeting guys? How much does a night out in the gay village or a trip to the Basement Sauna cost? That's assuming a person wants to do those things in the first place.
How do you think a young black man in trackies and a hoodie with a speech impediment would get on in the gay village? Would he even get into any of the venues? Just one person I got to know (and not for sex).
Thee are countless people of all kinds who have very limited options.
As far as I can tell, the days of 200 men being down there at 2am are long gone, due to all the previous intimidation and harrassment. Which the city council and friends have absolutely nothing to be proud of.
And, in a way you're right... Drunken, drugged up clubbers DON'T need to go down there and many of them are at the root of the problems in fact. They shout and scream, draw attention, fall into the canal and provide easy prey for criminals.
In the past there was always a certain code of behaviour among men who went cruising. They were keenly aware of the need to be discrete and would never have done it while drunk.
So as with most problems in the city centre today, alcohol is the real issue but the one that no one wants to tackle due to the big profits.
But above all it really disturbs me how complacent, short-sighted and selfish many gay men are these days just because they are out, enjoy the over-commercial gay lifestyle and are able to afford it.
Posted by Gary, 09/11/2009 3:26pm (10 months ago)
It surprises me that you are hand in hand with the Police on this. Surely the role of the LGF is to work with gay people who are still vulnerable and lacking in basic equality rights as our straight counterparts.
Manchester police has a long history of bullying and singling out gay people. If they want to clean up cruising, then let them deal with it without the help of you making criminals of LGBT people.
Shame on you.
Posted by Will, 09/11/2009 3:15pm (10 months ago)
While watching LGF over the years I have been someone who has vocally opposed an organisation that sets itself so loftily above the rest of us queers and I make no apology for that.
Recently I have seen a shift in the LGF's gears and they seem to speak more to me. Is it because I've got older? Changed? I really have no idea but I'm happy with them and while there is a slight nagging that this good spell may not last I will support the LGF and actively mention the work you are doing to my friends and associates, although prefixing it with "About time!".
Anyway, on topic and in response to the comments thus far, having a gay organisation going out with the police makes total sense. Mainly so that the police can be monitored to make sure that if they are doing this that they don't alienate but inform.
The idea of hundreds of people wandering down the canal at 2am looking for a "social space and meeting place" seems bloody odd and sugar-coated in reference to the nineties to say the least.
I understand that for some and their situation, being gay and married and the like, cruising could be important to them but to have a dark and dingy area turned into a queens knitting club with added benefits *wink, wink* while harking on about the glory days of getting your end away down the canal reeks of selfishness, not to mention being dangerous.
To imply that men are down there for anything other than to get some satisfaction is naïve, and to also say that this is necessary for older gay men seems misinformed, speaking as one I have no inclination to cruise. If I want to socialise there are groups to go to, but I don't use them. For what I would get down the canal I use the internet!
Our community doesn't *need* cruising grounds, it *wants* them. Times change and this activity isn't acceptable any more.
I just wish the police and the LGF would now do something about the appalling cruising going on in Sackville Gardens, as well as the mess it leaves, as it is much worse than the canal area.
Well done LGF.
Posted by David L., 09/11/2009 2:05pm (10 months ago)
It is time for a completely different approach. Cruising isn't about to stop tomorrow, no amount of warnings or threats are going to stop grown men doing what they have done for centuries.
Even if you've never been near one and have no interest in doing so out of disgust or fear we should try and accept that he community needs cruising grounds just as much as it needs the village and all the services it offers.
OutRage! Had been campaigning around cruising as a civil rights issue for many years.
Today we will announce a new campaign. It would be marvellous if the Lesbian and Gay Foundation were able to support it and others joined us in taking this discussion to the next level.
Watch this space Manchester!
Posted by David Henry, 09/11/2009 8:18am (10 months ago)
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