FOLLOWING the news that undercover police officers could patrol nightclubs and bars across the country as part of plans to improved protection for women, Argus readers have responded in their droves.

Boris Johnson chaired a meeting of the government’s Crime and Justice Taskforce on Monday as Downing Street confirmed it was taking “immediate steps” to improve security for women.

Among them is to roll-out across the country pilots of a programme where uniformed and plain clothes officers seek to actively identify predatory and suspicious offenders in the night time economy.

Dubbed ‘Project Vigilant’, the programme can involve officers attending areas around clubs and bars undercover, along with increased police patrols as people leave at closing time.

Commenting on Facebook, Mark Hansen questioned where these officers would be coming from.

"There's no police available for local crime," he said. "By the time lockdown ends there won't be any pubs and clubs open."

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Aaron Bowen argued that the government had already "cut the police to the bone".

"It's up to the public to police themselves," he said.

"This country has to have a massive overhaul to the justice system."

Gareth Palmer agreed that more visible policing "would do wonders", arguing that sorting out the root of the problem was not required as "prevention is better than a cure".

Argus website commenter St3v3y disagreed.

"Shouldn't the first and most important matter to tackle be - what measures are the police going to put in place to ensure the public, that nobody will be able to do this [commit violence against women] again?," he said.

Clare Webb said that a better idea would be to go right to the root of the matter.

"Let's teach our sons and educate men (and women) that any type of violence is not okay," she said.

"When things like this happen people are quick to "victim blame" (even unintentionally) but the real issue is the person that commits the crime.

"That is often overlooked."

Gwent Police said they would not be commenting further on this issue.