Select Committee on Transport Minutes of Evidence


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:
2,724Tickets issued
1,195Penalty Fares issued
   648Persons 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)
   474Recorded verbal warnings given
   225+Occasions of drunks or undesirables being removed from trains and stations
     82People 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)
     18TVM Blockages removed preventing thefts from the machines
     15Passengers at high risk assisted arrests as a direct result of activity.


  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 SAFETYTHE 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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