In April, amid complaints that it wasn’t doing enough to combat sexual and other types of harassment, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority launched a new campaign encouraging victims to come forward with complaints of being harassed on board Metrorail.
Two months later, 28 stations throughout the system feature large public service announcements telling victims how to report incidents and warning would-be harassers that the agency is taking such things more seriously. It’s a big shift from earlier this year, when Metro officials, including General Manager Richard Sarles and Metro Transit Police Chief Michael Taborn, seemed oblivious to the fact that many Metro riders, especially women, were feeling uncomfortable when riding the trains.
In addition to the billboards, Metro also launched a dedicated email address—harassment@wmata.com—and online form to receive complaints. Caroline Lucas, an agency spokeswoman, says the agency believes the new system has been successful so far.
Through May 18, Metro received 44 complaints, including 19 criminal offenses, four criminal non-sexual incidents and 21 complaints of harassment, according to Lucas.
“We’ve been getting positive feedback,” Lucas says. “People are happy to see Metro take a stand.”
Lucas says that Metro is also attempting to track instances of verbal harassment among the data it collects.
Holly Kearl, the author of Stop Street Harassment: Making Public Places Safe and Welcoming for Women and a member of Metro’s task force on curbing harassment, testified at the D.C. Council hearing in February where Sarles and Taborn appeared out of touch.
In an email, Kearl writes that she and her fellow task force members are due a full update from Metro in the next few weeks. “I think it will take some time before we can assess if the initiative is successful or not,” she says. But Kearl adds that she was pleased with Metro’s response time in the matter.
And that full update on Metro’s anti-sexual harassment campaign is coming soon, Lucas says. Taborn is due to present a broader and up-to-date report at next Thursday’s meeting of Metro’s board of directors.
In the mean time, you can see a list of the anti-harassment billboards posted around the Metrorail system on Kearl’s website.
