A FORMER Love Island contestant joined the police in Oxford for one shift to learn about safety on a night out.

Sharon Gaffka joined Thames Valley Police’s Project Vigilant team on a night shift to see how they go about keeping people safe in the city centre.

The project, which was launched in 2019, is a force-wide scheme that sees plain clothes and uniformed officers patrol night spots to identify and stop predatory and inappropriate sexual behaviour in response to a spike in sex attacks and violence linked to the ‘night time economy’.

During the shift, Ms Gaffka posed for a picture by the Radcliffe Camera with Sgt Kayleigh Livingstone.

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The season 7 Love Island contestant, who is from Didcot, posted the photo on her Instagram Stories, commenting: “For anyone who saw me getting into the back of a police car on Friday night, I wasn’t being arrested!

“I got to experience first hand how officers operate under project vigilant.”

The 26-year-old civil servant has been advocating for education around drink spiking after she became a victim.

She endorsed the Stamp Out Spiking campaign, which tackles the increasing incidents of drink spiking across the UK, after she was found unconscious in a toilet cubicle in 2020.

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This story was written by Anna Colivicchi, she joined the team this year and covers health stories for the Oxfordshire papers. 

Get in touch with her by emailing: Anna.colivicchi@newsquest.co.uk

Follow her on Twitter @AnnaColivicchi