Police paint nails ‘in fight against slavery’
...and be warned, anyone COMPLAINING about this bizarre stunt faces being accused of a hate crime
POLICE officers painted their nails in a stunt to highlight the evils of modern-day slavery.
Male and female staff were encouraged to wear garish neon nail varnish while on patrol to raise awareness of people-trafficking in nail bars.
Officers excitedly tweeted about ‘ pampering’ themselves before shifts, and posted photos of their lurid nails while they were on patrol.
But the Avon and Somerset Police campaign was roundly criticised by charity bosses, politicians and members of the public via social media as a spectacular waste of time.
The force said it was ‘disappointed’ about the criticism – and urged anyone who felt ‘victimised’ by such comments to report them as hate crimes.
Tory MP David Davies said the initiative was unlikely to catch any offenders. Harry Fletcher, of the Voice 4 Victims charity, added: ‘Modern slavery must be eradicated but the way to do that is to put priorities into catching gangmasters and traffickers, rather than engaging in odd gimmicks.’
Defending the initiative, Chief Inspector Mark Edgington said: ‘ Some people will disagree with the campaign, which is their prerogative, but the campaign has worked as it’s got people talking.’
The cash- strapped force has recently shut its burglary unit, which solved only 7,623 of 70,522 break-ins between 2011 and 2016. Chief Constable Andy Marsh last month admitted the force was at a ‘tipping point’. It has had to make £65million of cuts since 2010 and is dealing with large numbers of officers off sick.
The nail campaign was launched by the charity Unseen, which works to tackle modern-day slavery. It encourages people to paint their nails in a bright colour and share a photo of them sticking two fingers up to slavery in nail bars.
Avon and Somerset wrote on its Facebook page: ‘We’re bending our uniform rules today so officers can wear nail varnish in support of #LetsNailIt for Anti-Slavery Day. Here’s ACC Nikki Watson, PC Joe Iles and PCSO Beth Crowley sport- ing some colourful claws. We’ll share more pics ... throughout the day. We’d love to see yours too.’
However members of the public were unimpressed.
Jamie de Rooy said: ‘Sorry, but haven’t you anything better to do? Like oh, I don’t know, catching some criminals?’ Lester Solway added: ‘How about nailing some criminals, more PC nonsense.’ Around 13,000 people are thought to be victims of slavery in Britain. Nail bars are allegedly a hot-spot for victims of trafficking and people are warned to look out for workers who could be there under duress. Signs include nervousness, poor English and reluctance to handle money. Avon and Somerset has dealt with 60 allegations of modern slavery in the past year. In its Twitter statement it said: ‘We were disappointed to read some of the comments on our #AntiSlaveryDay tweets yesterday. Our aim was to encourage people to look out for signs of modern slavery and understand how to report it. Nail bars are at risk of modern slavery so some officers were pictured with painted nails on Anti-Slavery Day to raise awareness of an issue they care about.
‘If anyone found these comments offensive, please report them to Twitter. If you feel you were targeted and the victim of a hate crime, please report this to us. We take this issue extremely seriously.’