British Transport Police

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British Transport Police
British Transport Police area
Coverage
Area	National Rail Network, London Underground, Docklands Light Railway, Midland Metro, Croydon Tramlink
Size
Population	N/A
Operations
Formed	1948
HQ	London
Officers	2,494
Areas	7
Stations	88
Chief Constable	Ian Johnston QPM
Website	British Transport Police

The British Transport Police (BTP) is a non-Home Office national police service responsible for policing the railway system throughout Great Britain.^[1] The service is also responsible for policing the London Underground system, the Docklands Light Railway, the Midland Metro and Croydon Tramlink, and, for a trial period in 2007, the Glasgow Subway. It is not responsible for policing Tyne and Wear Metro or the Manchester Metrolink. Northern Ireland does not have an extensive railway system, and responsibility for policing remains in control of the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

The BTP has 2494 regular police officers, 248 special constables and 1015 support staff throughout England, Wales, and Scotland (2003). The Chief Constable is Ian Johnston CBE, QPM.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Foundation 1.2 Navigators 1.3 Historical crime 1.4 Reorganisation 1.5 Inter-war years 1.6 World War II 1.7 Post war 2 How the BTP is funded 3 Communications and control rooms 4 Powers and status of officers 5 Accident investigation 6 Crime on the railway 6.1 Route crime 7 Special Constabulary 8 Proposed merger 9 See also 10 External links 11 References

[edit] History

[edit] Foundation

The modern Police Service owes much to Sir Patrick Colquhoun (1745 - 1820) who in 1796 recommended the creation of a centralised Police Service and the use of men specifically trained for the purpose. Sir Robert Peel introduced an Act of Parliament in 1829, which led to the creation of the Metropolitan Police. Within a few months of both the introduction of the Metropolitan Police and the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway the first Railway Police Force was formed.

[edit] Navigators

A huge workforce was required to build the ever expanding railway system. These armies of rough workers brought fear into rural Victorian England. In 1838 an Act was passed which required Railway Companies to pay for constables to keep the peace near railway works.

[edit] Historical crime

The continually expanding network of railways gave criminals new opportunities to move around the country and commit crime. The railways were pioneers of the electric telegraph and its use often involved the arrest of criminals arriving or departing by train. On 1 January 1845 a Railway Police Sergeant became the first person to arrest a murderer following the use of an electric telegraph. In 1838 the Royal Mail was conveyed by rail for the first time. The first mail thefts were reported shortly afterwards. In 1848 the Eastern Counties Railway lost 76 pieces of luggage in just one day, and by the following year thefts from the largest six railways amounted to over £100,000 a year. The first railway murder was committed by a German, who robbed and killed a fellow passenger on a train in North London in 1864. The first arrest abroad by the British Police occurred in 1874 when a Metropolitan Police Inspector accompanied by a Railway Police Inspector went to the United States to arrest a former employee who had embezzled from the Grand Metropolitan Railway.

[edit] Reorganisation

From 1900 several railway companies re-organised their police forces. The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway virtually reformed their police force from scratch in that year, followed by the Great Eastern Railway, the North Eastern Railway and Midland in 1910, Caledonian in 1917 and lastly the GWR in 1918.

[edit] Inter-war years

The Railways Act 1921 amalgamated over one hundred separate railway systems (of which about 20 had organised police forces) into four groups:-

• The Great Western Railway
• The London and North Eastern Railway
• The London, Midland and Scottish Railway
• The Southern Railway

Each had its own police force controlled by a Chief of Police. These four forces were organised in the same way; each split into a number of Divisions headed by a Superintendent, divided into a number of Divisions Posts led by an Inspector. Detectives worked with their uniformed colleagues at most locations. Many ' non-police' duties were retained however, with officers acting as crossing keepers or locking and sealing wagons.

[edit] World War II

During the war the strength of the Railway Police doubled. With many men conscripted Special Constables and Women Police were again employed.

[edit] Post war

In 1947 the Transport Act created the British Transport Commission which unified the railway system. On 1st January 1949 the British Transport Commission Police were created, formed from the four old railway police forces, canal police and several minor dock forces. In 1957 the Maxwell-Johnson enquiry found that policing requirements for the railway could not be met by civil forces and that it was essential that a specialist police force be retained. In 1984 London Buses decided not to use the British Transport Police. The British Transport Docks Board followed in 1985.

[edit] How the BTP is funded

The British Transport Police is largely funded by the train operating companies, Network Rail, and the London Underground - part of Transport for London.^[2] This funding arrangement does not give the rail companies power to set objectives for the BTP, nor are the BTP a private security company. Whether on or off duty, officers of the BTP are under sworn oath to use their powers to; 'cause peace to be preserved, and prevent all offences against the persons and property of Her Majesty's subjects'. This is stated in the Form of Oath taken by all British Transport Police Officers.

[edit] Communications and control rooms

The BTP operates five control rooms across England, Wales and Scotland with the largest control room being the MICC or Management Information & Communications Centre in London. The MICC are responsible for the Greater London area (including the London Underground and Mainline) and the home counties. The other four control rooms are in Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester & Glasgow. The Birmingham control room covers the East Midlands, West Midlands, Wales and the South West of England. Manchester covers the North West of England, Leeds the North East of England and Glasgow covers Scotland. In 2008 it is likely that a reduction in the number of Control Rooms to just two - based in Birmingham & London - will be undertaken.

[edit] Powers and status of officers

British Transport Police officers are constables with the same powers as constables of regional Home Office police forces when on railway property and can also exercise their powers in most, though not all, situations throughout England, Wales and Scotland.^{[3] [4]} Their uniforms and rank system are similar to other British police forces. Officers often wear distinctive black jerseys with a black and white diced pattern on the yoke.

On 1 July 2004 a Police Authority for the British Transport Police was created.^[5] BTP Officers became employees of the Police Authority, prior to that, they were employees of the Strategic Rail Authority. The force played a central role in the response to the 7 July 2005 London bombings. Three of the incidents were at tube stations: Edgware Road, Russell Square and Aldgate stations.
On 15th July 2006, a Dog Section Training School was opened at the Force Training establishment near Tadworth, Surrey.

[edit] Accident investigation

Until the 1990s the principal investigators of railway accidents were the Inspecting Officers of HM Railway Inspectorate, and BTP involvement was minimal. With major accidents after the 1988 Clapham Junction rail crash being investigated by more adversarial public inquiries, the BTP took on a more proactive role in crash investigations, treating crash sites as "scenes of crime" and keeping professional railway investigators away from the scene until the BTP had finished its investigations, often days later. This was controversial in the rail industry as it severely delayed the resumption of rail services and the BTP were viewed as incompetent investigators of crash sites - a view strengthened after the Southall rail crash of 1997 when a significant piece of wreckage was discovered in the track ballast after BTP had handed the investigation back to HMRI.^{[citation needed]} The BTP's reputation was further lowered following a low-speed train derailment near Glasgow, caused by the track spreading because of thermal expansion in unusually hot weather, when the BTP insisted on treating the accident as a scene of crime, detaining hundreds of passengers for many hours while statements were taken. Pressure from within the industry caused the setting-up of the Department for Transport's Rail Accident Investigation Branch to take the lead role in investigations.

[edit] Crime on the railway

Operation Shield is an initiative by BTP to reduce the number of knives carried by passengers on the train network. This initiative came about after knife crime began to rise and also because of the high profile murder of a passenger on a Virgin Trains service travelling from Glasgow ^[6]

[edit] Route crime

Route crime^[7] was formerly know as trespass and vandalism. It is believed to be the biggest cause of most deaths to members of the public on railways in Britain. Many of the deliberate deaths are suicides with the rest being attributed to trespass. ^[8].

Graffiti costs rail firms over £5m a year in direct costs alone ^[9] The BTP maintains a graffiti database which holds over 1900 graffiti tags, each unique to an individual vandal. in 2005 BTP sent 569 suspects to court (an increase of 16% on 2004 figures). Surveys show that fear of crime is made worse by graffiti, as the general perception is that the vandals are in control. ^[10].

The BTP also deals with hundreds of instances of theft each day, including stolen property and the theft of metals such as copper from railway safety equipment^[11]. In the North West Area BTP has joined forces with Lancashire Constabulary and Network Rail to combat thefts of metals from railway lines in an initiative called Operation Tremor. Wales & Western Area have a similar initiative - Op Drum.

It is estimated that^[12]:

• 17 million offences of criminal trespass on the railways are committed annually by adults
• 10 million offences of criminal trespass on the railways committed annually by children

[edit] Special Constabulary

British Transport Police first recruited Special Constables in a trial based in the North West Area in 1995, and this was expanded to the whole of England, Wales and Scotland.

The London North, London South and London Underground Areas employ the majority of the 248 Special Constables. They have the same powers of arrest as regular officers.

[edit] Proposed merger

Although the British Transport Police is not under the control of the Home Office, and as such was not included as part of the proposed mergers of the Home Office forces of England and Wales in early 2006, both Ken Livingstone and Sir Ian Blair have stated publicly that they want a single police force in Greater London. As part of this, they wish to have the functions of the BTP in the capital absorbed by the Metropolitan Police. However, following a review of the BTP by the Department for Transport, no changes to the form and function of the force will be implemented, and any merger will not happen [1].

[edit] See also

• List of UK Police forces
• London Underground
• Operation Perseus
• Operation Shield
• Operation Tremor
• Policing in the United Kingdom
• Special Constabulary
• Route Crime
• Transit police
• UK topics

[edit] External links

• British Transport Police
• British Transport Police Special Constabulary website
• Track Off
• BBC Crimefighters: British Transport Police

[edit] References

1. ^ British Transport Police website,(accessed 20 Feb 07)
2. ^ British Transport Police Annual Report 2004/2005 (PDF), 8. Retrieved on 2006-04-11. 
3. ^ s31 Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003
4. ^ s100 Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001
5. ^ s18 Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003
6. ^ BBC News Website: Man quizzed over stabbing 28 May 06 (accessed 19 Mar 07)
7. ^ Office of Rail Regulation (accessed 21/12/06
8. ^ Route Crime, Railways Online (accessed 21/012/2006)
9. ^ BTP: Issues, graffiti (accessed 19 Mar 07)
10. ^ The Sharp End Issue 16 (published for the Home Office and sent to every Police officer, SC and Support Staff in England & Wales)
11. ^ Railway thieves risk their lives. TrackOff
12. ^ Route Crime, Railways Online (accessed 21/012/2006)