People who have arranged a date online but find themselves uncomfortable or afraid once they meet up are being given a discreet way to summon help.
Customers at pubs or bars in Lincolnshire can now “ask for Angela” – a coded request which will signal to staff that they feel uneasy and need help. The staff will then help extricate them from the date and get them safely home.
The campaign has been launched by Lincolnshire county council as part of its efforts to tackle sexual violence.
“We have had a really positive response to the campaign, including thanks from victims of abuse for the work that’s being done,” said Hayley Child from the council. “Around the country and the world, people have sent us messages saying what a great idea this is, and the response has been amazing.”
Similar schemes have been run by individual bars and pubs around Britain but Lincolnshire says it is the first to offer a more comprehensive scheme.
“We’d seen that a few individual pubs around the country had done similar messages at the bar saying that if people’s dates weren’t going well, the bar staff would help and call them a cab.
“We wanted to do this in a more organised way, and worked with the PubWatch schemes in Lincolnshire to get the bars to take part.”
Kayleigh Rice from the Suzy Lampugh Trust said similar schemes should be set up across the country. “Ask Angela is a great initiative, enabling people to covertly raise the alarm and leave if they feel unsafe. This is valuable tool which makes both women and men feel safer and more confident when meeting new people.”
Tony Neate, CEO of Get Safe Online, said: “Although finding a date is a lot easier than it used to be, sadly the risks of meeting someone who is abusive, or physically violent towards us also increase.”
He welcomed the Ask for Angela scheme, adding: “It’s potentially something that could be rolled out at a national level to help raise awareness of these threats. It can also help people feel more secure and enjoy the internet for what it is, a great opportunity to meet and connect.”
In Lincolnshire, bars and pubs involved in the county’s PubWatch scheme have been given posters reading: “Are you on a date that isn’t working out? Is your Tinder or PoF [Plenty of Fish] date not who they said they were on their profile?
“If you go to the bar and ask for Angela, the bar staff will know you need some help getting out of your situation.”
Staff have been trained how best to help and the campaign received a boost when 21-year-old Isobel O’Brien posted a picture of the poster on Twitter along with the caption: “I saw this in a toilet and thought it was important and should be a thing everywhere, not just Lincolnshire.”
The Lincoln-based student said she was on a date herself when she first saw the poster and added: “It made me think, what if an individual feels physically uncomfortable and unsafe?
“And what if you had met with somebody and they weren’t who they advertised themselves as on a dating app? So I thought that the Ask for Angela idea was fantastic. It gives people that security to know that if they feel unsafe, this system is in place.”
