New Ask for Angela DISC Incident Categories Launched to Support Safety

The National Ask For Angela scheme is delighted to be working with DISC to include ‘Ask For Angela’ incident categories, allowing DISC users to acknowledge, measure and look for trends of these incidents with much greater accuracy and detail.

The addition of specific ‘Ask For Angela’ categories is a proactive step to capture the occurrences of incidents like harassment, spiking, and inappropriate behaviours that have made people feel uncomfortable or unsafe, immediately offer the support they need, seek to bring the perpetrators to justice and look at any trends which could be tackled to reduce these types of incidents occurring.

DISC, launched in 2014, is a widely used tool to share information about incidents and offenders, as well as providing awareness of safety and security matters. It is used by local partners such as Business Improvement Districts, Pubwatch schemes and local authorities in 42 police force areas nationally, together with Security Companies, Retailers and Event venues.

Serving emergency services, businesses, and community stakeholders, DISC provides a real-time hub where incidents can be recorded and details accessed, along with known offender galleries, quickly and at any time, whilst adhering to all GDPR requirements.  DISC empowers stakeholders to report incidents and offenders, providing a tool where this information can be stored and used to pro-actively, collaboratively and effectively target crime in their communities.

The Ask For Angela scheme, founded by Inspector Hayley Crawford in 2016, is a discreet safety initiative allowing any individual to seek help from staff in an organisation such as a pub, bar or shop, if they are in a situation that makes them feel uncomfortable or unsafe.

The national Ask for Angela Community Interest Company was launched in 2023 to support businesses and other partners to successfully implement the initiative. The website, askforangela.co.uk, offers free to download tools and resources, with the ability for location or organisation specific versions to be created. Inspector Hayley Crawford is the scheme’s patron.

To assist with measuring the occurrence of incidents and the effectiveness of the Ask For Angela scheme, the ‘Ask For Angela’ incident log is further broken down into the following categories:

• Sexual harassment
• Unwanted contact/sexual advances
• Stalking/following
• Inappropriate sexual language/lewd comments
• Coercive/controlling behaviour
• Suspected spiking
• Other

Iwona Kossek, Director of Ask for Angela, said: “We’re excited to partner with DISC to introduce reporting categories aimed at enhancing safety in our communities.

“Incorporating ‘Ask For Angela’ incidents on this powerful platform is a huge step forward in tackling incidents of harassment and violence and also provides a measure of the effectiveness of implementing Ask For Angela in keeping vulnerable people safe within our communities and providing the support that they need.”

Steve Lang, Managing Director of DISC, said: “We are extremely pleased to be partnering with ‘Ask for Angela’ to include these specific incident categories, so that we can not only record incidents but also increase awareness and publicise this great initiative.”

Sophie Jordan, Business Crime Reduction Manager at the National Association of Business Crime Partnerships (NABPC), said: “The introduction of this new category of incident to the DISC system is a welcome addition to this excellent tool. People who work in public facing businesses offer far more to their customers than sales and customer service, they are often the friendly face and reassuring presence that people can turn to if they need support. The new categories will also capture data on the invaluable work that teams in organisations across the country do to keep their customers safe and feeling supported.”

The new categories are available to use now via the DISC system.

ENDS

About DISC

Disc is the UK’s leading online Crime Reduction Platform and Smart Phone App used by over 240 Business Crime Reduction Partnerships, Business Improvement Districts, Security Companies, Police and Event Venues throughout the UK. Disc is utilised to report incidents, Direct Crimes to Police, intelligence and to UKGDPR compliantly share information about prolific Offenders. It is also used to circulate News and Alerts to member Businesses, as well as having its own Instant Messenger to maximise engagement.

Disc was first launched in 2010 as BCRP Intranet, but rebranded and rewritten in 2014 as Disc.

For more information, please contact Steve Lang on steve.lang@littoralis.com or 07399 803292.

About Ask for Angela

Ask for Angela is a code phrase that people can use to ask for support in a discreet way in venues that operate the scheme. The national Community Interest Company was launched in 2023 by Iwona Kossek, Sylvia Oates and James Hoffelner, to provide free resources to enable venues to quickly and easily set up a successful Ask for Angela response at no cost via askforangela.co.uk.

Inspector Hayley Crawford, founder of the initiative, is the patron of the CIC.

For more information, please contact Iwona Kossek on iwona@askforangela.co.uk or 07719 066639.