Private security guards began their first patrols in Essex on Monday, hired by the Reform-led county council to monitor migrants in Colchester, Braintree and Chelmsford. The move follows complaints from local women and girls about being harassed, filmed and intimidated by groups of male migrants brought into the towns from MDP Wethersfield, a former RAF base used to house asylum seekers, with some residents saying they now avoid town centres altogether.

The scheme, named Operation Vanguard, was described by Reform as a direct response to concerns raised by residents. On their first shift in Chelmsford, security operatives responded to a report of masked youths entering a Poundland store and asked them to leave. Several residents, including women who said they had been followed or subjected to comments, welcomed the patrols, though one migrant resident argued the underlying issue was a lack of integration rather than a need for security guards.