Memorandum submitted by the British Transport
Police
INTRODUCTION
British Transport Police (BTP) is the national
police force for the railways providing a policing service to
rail operators, their staff and passengers throughout England,
Wales and Scotland.
BTP has developed valuable expertise and the
skills required to police a modern railway network. Fully integrated
with local policing, BTP works closely with industry and community
partners to provide a specialist, dedicated service protecting
passengers, staff, and the network infrastructure from disruption
and fear of crime.
BTP's policing of Britain's railways is considered
to be among the most sophisticated and successful of any railway
policing in the world. In terms of what can be done to make railway
station safer it outline what BTP is dong in terms of its policing
priorities; increasing visibility through extending the police
family, and mounting specific operations to further its objectives
and reassure staff. It also addresses station security and the
need for properly maintained stations, the Secure Stations scheme
accreditation process and how the scheme could be improved.
INCREASING PERSONAL
SAFETY—BTP PRIORITIES
BTP is determined to increase actual and perceived
personal safety on the railway network and this is illustrated
by the priorities included within the BTP Policing Plan 2005-06.
These include:
Combating anti-social behaviour
Low level disorder offices such as ticket touting
(often selling travelcards to feed drug habits), travel fraud,
trespass, vandalism and others can adversely affect feelings of
personal safety on the railways and can also be an indicator of
wider criminality. BTP uniquely maintains a database of all non-recordable
offences, and detections of low-level disorder have increased
dramatically over recent years. Economic costs to the railway
industry are enormous, and BTP has worked hard to ensure that
the criminal justice system recognises the effect of a crime that
is often seen as victimless.
Staff assaults
BTP has included targets surrounding staff assaults
on the annual Policing Plan since 2004-05. This was in response
to a significant increase experienced in 2003-04. Various tactics
are employed by BTP to tackle staff assaults and increase the
safety of rail staff. These include encouraging rail staff to
report all assaults; ensuring minimum standards of investigation
are implemented; working in partnerships with TOCs to highlight
workplace violence; creating specialist units on some Areas to
tackle this type of crime; issuing spittle/DNA kits to rail staff
to gather evidence in instances of assault; and working with TOCs
through crime reduction opportunities to improve station CCTV
systems to aid the identification of offenders.
Robbery
Robbery is a BTP priority due to the aggravating
feature of actual or threatened violence and the disproportionate
impact this crime has on public perceptions of safety whilst travelling
on the rail network. BTP met the National Policing Plan target
of reducing robbery by 14% by 31 March 2005 and continues to successfully
target perpetrators of this crime.
Violent assaults
Detecting violent offenders was a target for
BTP during 2005-06 and will be again in 2006-07. The inclusion
of offensive weapon offences within this category further underlines
BTP's resolve to eradicate violence on the network and supports
initiatives such as Operation Shield, which is described in detail
below. It is impossible to overestimate the negative effects on
personal safety these types of crime on the railway community
and BTP are committed to bringing those who commit them to justice.
Hate crime
Hate crime constitutes any crime where a person's
prejudice against an identifiable group is a factor in their choice
of victim and causes extreme distress to both staff and passengers
when it occurs. The offence could be motivated by hatred, bias
or prejudice and is based on the actual or perceived race, gender,
colour, religion, national origin, disability or sexual orientation
of another individual or group, including domestic disputes.
This target underpins substantial BTP activity
in this area. BTP has established a Hate Crime Unit, and has joined
the True Visions website, which exists to encourage people
to report hate crime. BTP is committed to vigorously investigating
all reported incidents to the satisfaction of the victim, identifying
and successfully prosecuting offenders, implementing a positive
arrest policy and, where a prosecution is not feasible, identifying
other methods of resolution so as to provide protection, comfort
and reassurance to victims.
BTP's other Policing Plan priorities are focused
on reducing the threat of terrorism, fatality management, reducing
and detecting theft of passenger property, combating graffiti
and investigating route crime. In 2004-05, BTP achieved all of
its objectives, and is on course to achieve all of its objectives
in 2005-06 despite the increasing demands of the terrorist threat
following the July bombings. This is a magnificent achievement.
BTP's performance has contributed substantially
to the overall decrease in crime on the railway network of 1.6%
between financial year 2003-04 and 2004-05. It is expected that
it will go down another 2% during 2005-06. It is important to
remember that the railway network is actually a very safe place
to be. Based on 2004-05 footfall data, there are around 89 offences
recorded on the railway network for every million passenger journeys,
whilst there are 31 offences recorded on the underground for every
million passenger journeys. The extremely low levels of crime
on London Underground reflects the considerable investment in
BTP by TfL, which has resulted in a substantial increase in police
numbers on the Underground. Both the mainline and London Underground
are actually very safe environments.
Passenger volume will also inevitably have an
effect on crime and it is likely that the railway community will
continue to grow. As Transport 2000 commented in 2005:
"Passenger journeys on Britain's railways
last year exceeded one billion, the highest since 1959, and train
operators estimate that demand for rail travel will grow by 66%
over the next 20 years. But parts of the network are already bursting
at the seams and desperately need expanding. Other parts of the
network will soon reach capacity as demand for rail use continues
to rise."
The overall decrease in recorded crime on the
railways is even more impressive when viewed in the context of
year-on-year rise in passenger volumes.
INCREASING PERSONAL
SAFETY—INCREASING
THE POLICE
FAMILY
Complementary policing is about working with
a range of people who support the work of regular police officers.
These include volunteer Special Constables, sponsored Special
Constables, Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs), security
staff, customer care and other rail staff. The introduction and
continued expansion of BTP's complementary policing options is
a key method of increasing BTP visibility and increasing personal
safety on the railway network.
Railway safety accreditation scheme
The Railway Safety Accreditation Scheme (RSAS)
is the latest addition to complementary policing. The RSAS will
bring more people into the wider "policing family".
It allows organisations and their employees involved in railway
safety and security to be accredited by the police. Under the
scheme, accredited persons are given limited powers aimed at providing
a better quality of life for the railway community.
RSAS accredited people will be able deal with
certain situations without involving police and, as part of the
wider policing family, improve liaison and information sharing.
This leads to more effective action and prioritisation on issues
affecting local railway communities, and allows for locally driven
approaches to solving problems.
Southeastern Trains were the first Train Operator
to make an application for accreditation under the RSAS, which
meant a steep learning curve for both them and the BTP. Since
the accredited Railway Enforcement Officers (REOs) came into being
they have been involved in the following:
| 2,724 | Tickets issued
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| 1,195 | Penalty Fares issued
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| 648 | Persons reported under the Regulation of Railways Act Level 3 Offence (for which the penalty could be up to 3 months in prison and/or £1,000 fine)
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| 474 | Recorded verbal warnings given
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| 225+ | Occasions of drunks or undesirables being removed from trains and stations
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| 82 | People reported for anti-social offences under Railway Byelaws (for which the penalty could be up to 3 months in prison and/or £1,000 fine)
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| 18 | TVM Blockages removed preventing thefts from the machines
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| 15 | Passengers at high risk assisted arrests as a direct result of activity.
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It is difficult to quantify the saving made in the terms
of lost minutes in the cases where disruptive passengers have
been removed from trains by the REO's. Without the intervention
of the REO's local station staff would have had to dealt with
these individuals, which would have caused delays and had knock-on
effects as staff would be distracted and unable to despatch other
services.
The main purpose for the introduction of this new role was
to improve passengers feeling of safety and security whilst travelling
on Southeastern Trains. In their most recent passenger survey
conducted on the Catford Loop lines in February, policed by REOs,
the percentage of passengers stating that they felt good or very
good about their safety rose from 36% to 42%—a significant
improvement of 6% over a short period of time.
Police Community Support Officers
Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) work alongside
BTP officers to ensure high visibility policing, increase the
travelling public's sense of security whilst upon the railway,
and support police officers in their work on the rail network.
The main role of PCSOs is to deal with quality of life issues
that do not always require the presence of a police officer. Even
so, all PCSOs are given full training to enable them to take appropriate
action in the event of difficult circumstances. They are supervised
by police officers and have radio access to enable them to call
for assistance should it be required. They do not need to be accompanied
by police officers except during a tutor period following training,
or where the type of duty being undertaken makes accompanied patrol
more appropriate.
In BTP's London South area, PCSOs have been deployed since
March 2005. They have been warmly received by station staff, the
general public and local businesses. The introduction of PCSOs
has made a difference to crime figures, as well as the overall
feeling of security of the public. There has been a big reduction
in beggars and thieves at stations such as Waterloo, Victoria,
Charing Cross and London Bridge. BTP, in partnership with the
railway industry will continue to use PCSOs and other appropriate
forms of complementary policing to further increase safety on
the rail network.
INCREASING PERSONAL
SAFETY—BTP IN
ACTION
BTP mounts many operations and strategies throughout the
year to further its policing objectives, reassure passengers and
staff, and to detect and arrest offenders. Following a number
of recent incidents involving the use of knives, BTP has implemented
a preventative strategy aimed to promote "zero tolerance"
in the use and carrying of knives and other weapons within the
railway environment.
Operation Shield involves the deployment of electronic scanners
staffed by Police Officers in uniform working in partnership with
Community Support Officers and Revenue Inspectors at railway stations.
The electronic scanners are similar to those deployed at
airports and other controlled zones. The operation is intelligence-led
and focuses on areas of the network where violent crime is more
prevalent.
Initial results have been encouraging. Since the launch of
the operation on 6 February 2006, 55 people have been arrested
and 33 weapons have been recovered including an axe, hammer and
a CS gas canister. All persons arrested have been known to Police
previously.
The impact on the travelling public and rail staff has been
very positive and encouraging. The presence of Uniformed Officers
and the electronic arches has afforded BTP an opportunity to further
engage with the community and provide general crime prevention
advice.
The operation will continue in London until the end of March
and will be extended Force-wide to cover the entire Country. The
first deployment outside London is to be in Scotland in both Glasgow
and Edinburgh in April. Targeted deployment of these resources
should bring about a decline in weapons related crime and associated
violence. It is the intention of British Transport Police in conjunction
with its industry partners to create a "weapons free"
environment on Britain's railway.
INCREASING PERSONAL
SAFETY—THE
SECURE STATIONS
SCHEME
BTP welcomes any efforts by TOCs need to improve safety and
security at stations. However, the House of Commons Committee
of Public Accounts publication "Maintaining and Improving
Britain's Railway Stations" published in December 2005
came to the following conclusions:
— Few train operating companies have joined national
schemes to reduce crime and improve personal safety at stations
even though research in 1996 and 2002 suggests that introducing
additional security measures can increase patronage by up to 11%.
— The original franchises awarded on privatisation
of the railways failed to put sufficient emphasis on improving
station facilities.
— Network Rail has been seen as a barrier to station
improvement through unduly complicated and inflexible procedures,
an unwillingness to share risks associated with improvement projects,
and a lack of targets for developing franchised sites.
The Secure Stations Scheme is an excellent opportunity for
the rail industry to work with BTP in improving safety and security
for passengers. The Secure Station scheme started in 1998 as a
partnership between Crime Concern, BTP and the DfT.
Accreditation
A new and more simple accreditation system was introduced
in 2005 after negotiations between DfT, train operators and BTP.
The main changes were around the "scoring" attributed
to crime at stations and this was replaced with a benchmark of
comparative crime figures to passenger footfall at the relevant
station. The other main change was the "Working Towards"
criteria which was introduced to encourage operators to join the
scheme. BTP is responsible for reviewing the station after notification
from the TOC that any work etc has been carried out and if successful
is re-inspected every two years. There are currently 240 accredited
stations in the scheme. 4 are "Working Towards" accreditation
and 60 have lapsed over the last two years.
How could it be improved?
The Secure Stations scheme does appear to reduce crime, particularly
when combined with the Safer Car Park scheme. However, there is
no specific process or policy for identifying stations which should
be selected as priority cases, although some franchises do stipulate
that all stations must be in the scheme. At present (other than
by franchise stipulation) it is left to the franchisee to apply
for the scheme. Local Crime Reduction Officers do promote the
scheme with operators. The Secure Stations scheme has few specific
security standards as it is mainly designed around safety standards.
The scheme could benefit from some specific standards which would
ensure that materials such as fencing, lighting, CCTV etc were
fit for purpose. The Safer Car Park award administered by the
British Parking Association does have specific standards for design
and materials.
There should be a process in place whereby BTP can influence
train operators and the DfT in the selection process and ensure
that priority stations are dealt with. It could be made part of
the franchise agreement for each TOC to achieve Secure Station
status at stations which reach a particular "risk" threshold
which would take account of crime rates. This would obviously
have to be dealt with carefully, as some TOCS will have more problem
stations than others.
There are many instances of stations being built or re-furbished
without early engagement of the BTP Crime Reduction Unit &
Architectural Liaison Officer and Counter Terrorism Security Advisor.
The BTP is best placed to advise Network Rail and TOCS on plans
which are likely to have any Crime and Disorder Act implications.
Under Section 17 of the Crime and Disorder Act, authorities must
consider these issues in their strategies. It is therefore important
that BTP is appraised of any plans likely to have this effect
at the earliest opportunity.
Train design and CCTV should also be a key consideration
when deigning stations. BTP are working with Industry Partners
to formulate guidance on the minimum levels for CCTV—it
is essential that CCTV systems become standardised, and that the
quality of CCTV images is sufficiently good for them to be properly
used.
31 March 2006
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