I don't have an agenda against the BTP. I don't want them closed down. All I want to know is that if i need back up while out doing my job then I will get it. Unfortunately that isn't the case. And I would imagine most railway workers feel broadly the same. I don't go by official figures produced by some pen pusher who probably wouldn't know about the railway if he fell over it because official statistics can be manipulated to show anything they want. What I go by are my own personal experiences. And let me tell you that in 13 years of working on the railway I have personally requested BTP assistance five times. Out of those five times they attended once. Yep once. Thats a 20% attendance rate. Do you think that is good performance. I personally don't I don't want to know any excuses about the way they are funded I just want to know when I have a guy standing the other side of the ticket window waving a knife and suggesting that he will be waiting for me outside when I finish my shift someone attends.
Lets hope that god forbid you are never in a situation like this. And if you are you are afforded the protection you deserve.
I put that comment about the BTP attending more because I get the impression a lot of people on this forum think the original incident should have been dealt with by calling the BTP. I know that if the BTP had been called they would probably have not attended. And that is life at the coal face. Not in official statistics but the way it really is
Totally agree, with only the proviso that there are fewer BT Police available than there really should be given the immense increase in their work allied to the fact they are one of only a couple of National Police Forces who have a wider responsibilities due to the various Terrorism threats we live under.
Turning now to the last part of
XCDriver's post, I like he doubts very much indeed that the BT Police would have attended. They appear to take the view these days that fare evasion is a Civil matter (which in most cases it is) best dealt with through the civil Courts.
They also no doubt have to prioritise their workload based upon what else is happening, and this of course is a picture we are not ever going to be aware of. Now this is not to necessarily defend, although I believe that there are some cases where criticism is unfair, but to merely explain as someone who has worked with them in the past on various exercises and operations.
In my view there can be no defense of a Police Officer who is happy to accept a "Mickey Mouse" name and address, and I think that Officer was a disgrace to the Force. His actions will have been noted and no doubt passed around amongst the scrote community, thus making it harder for Guards in the future.
We will not however see any real change until a number of things happen, Firstly we need to have a Sea Change in thinking amongst the Judiciary, who view Railway Crime akin to some sort of public schoolboy highjinks. Secondly and with this, we need to Judiciary to take a very firm stance against anti-social behaviour and fare evasion. Thirdly we need both Network Rail and the TOCs to get behind the BT Police and give them not only the funding but also the support they need.
From the BT Police point of view, they need to re-look at their attitude to "low level" crime. The new York Subway system had similar problems to ours in the 1980s but under a new Mayor, the Transit Police were instructed to adopt a zero tolerance approach to low level crime and fare evasion. Within a year the New York Subway had been pretty much cleaned up and was no longer the place where gangs ran riot after dark. Fare evaders were processed in special vans outside and immediately taken to special Courts which were sitting throughout the day. Sentences and fines were passed within hours of the incident. This again helped reinforce the fact that fare evasion would not be tolerated.
Ray Mallon in when a Police Officer in Sunderland adopted that type of approach but whilst beinmg enormously successful, it flew in the face of the "liberal elite and Judicary" who were more concerned with following an unproven socialist and liberal agenda rather than ensuring that Justice was dispensed.
We also need the BT Police to reach out more to the staff so that they understand what pressures and workload they are under.
For the TOCs we need them to get together properly and adopt a properly and rigourously enforced fare evasion Policy. This should inlude slightly simplified but penal rules along the line that if you are on the train without a ticket the presumption is that you are evading the fare and therefore a £50 surcharge is added to the ticket type that will be issued. Now clearly there are situations where exceptions would need to apply but these should be in the minority and lets face it Man would never have reached the Moon had not people addressed the problems which others said were insurmountable and dealt with them one by one.
I am sure that the resultant savings in train delays, equipment/train damage, and the increase in fares revenue would cover some of these measures.
Things will only change once
everyone in the Industry accepts that Railway Crime affects us all, and that it needs to be tackled centrally, coherently, and rigourously. This includes Network Rail, the TOCs/FOCs, Infrastructure Companies, and others who have dealings with the Railway on a regular basis.
I would really love it, if this latest stabbing incident resulted in some serious long term change in strategy amongst the Judiciary but I am cynical enough to doubt it.
