The BTP are only able to enforce criminal law, and they are not their to ensure that fare evaders are dealt with correctly but to ensure that neither side is in breach of criminal law.
I'm unsure as to where the assertion that the police are responsible for upholding civil law comes from?
Erm, the law is the law. The various forms of fare evasion are normally breaches of criminal law, so of course it's the Police's business.
Whether there are more important matters/crimes to resource over dealing with fare evasion is another matter. Personally I believe that fare evasion should be dealt with by the railway companies where possible, as is currently the case on the whole, with BTP becoming involved where threats and violence are used.
Does it hurt to have the NPT or Safer Travel Teams go out with RPIs though? Absolutely not IMO. RPIs come up against a lot of grief, having BTP there only prevents such unpleasantness.
Quite right I do, why does anyone who works for the railways deserve a member of the BTP to be present when they carry out their job when so many stations are left deserted for passengers to basically fend for themselves in the late evenings.
You're joking, right? You can't see the difference between what a passenger encounters (which is normally nothing) and what an RPI encounters, where they have to upset all sorts of characters?
Ultimately passengers or from general taxation, the rest as per our current situation is just a money making machine for private enterprise.
Only a small percentage of the BTP's funding comes from general taxation, and this is usually for specific projects.
Oh so we do live in a police state, at least as far as the railways are concerned it seems.
Railway's have had byelaws formed under Acts of Parliament for 170 years. These have been enforced by railway men and Police Officers for 170 years. If the existence of enforceable byelaws are how you define a 'Police State', then I guess we live in one and have done for 170+ years.