British Transport Police - general thread

[whole diary]

[grahame]

It stuck me that we don't seem to have a "who are the BTP^▸ (British Transport Police)" thread ... and then I set about finding a short quote on their site ( http://www.btp.police.uk and http://www.btp.police.uk/about_us.aspx ) and found it quite difficult to put an overall picture together.

Starting at Wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Transport_Police )

The British Transport Police (BTP) is a national special police force that polices railways and light-rail systems in England, Scotland and Wales, for which it has entered into an agreement to provide such services. Seventy five percent of the force's funding comes from Britain's privatised train companies. British Transport Police officers do not have jurisdiction in Northern Ireland unless working under mutual aid arrangements for the Police Service of Northern Ireland, in which case any duties performed on a railway will be merely incidental to working as a constable in Northern Ireland.

As well as having jurisdiction across the national rail network, the BTP is also responsible for policing the Croydon Tramlink, Docklands Light Railway, Emirates Air Line, Glasgow Subway, London Underground, Midland Metro and the Sunderland line of the Tyne and Wear Metro (between Fellgate and South Hylton). They are not responsible for policing other tramway systems such as Manchester, Nottingham, Blackpool or Edinburgh, nor rail in Northern Ireland or the rest of the Tyne and Wear Metro.

As of September 2017, BTP had a workforce of 3,028 police officers, 1,530 police staff, 230 police community support officers, 30 designated officers and 330 special constables. In terms of officer numbers it is the largest of the three special police forces and the 11th largest police force in the United Kingdom overall.

The BTP are under the control or the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) not the home office and their jurisdiction ends at the edge of railway premises.  This has caused some concerns over the years, with pressures in London around 10 years ago, and currently in Scotland, for them to be merged with the force with general juristiction in the particular area. I also recall plans (though not mentioned to a findable-by-me extent on the sites I have linked to) to join them with other specialist police forces such as those who look after nuclear sites.

Thread started as background the story this morning concerning problems with the proposed / planned merger I Scotland between the BTP and Police Scotland - covered on our Frequent Posters board at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=20459.0

[CyclingSid]

In the last year or so I get the impression that Southern have taken to using their own security staff. Dressed to look like CSOs.

Does that mean that BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) is funded by a levy on the TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) and Southern are trying to save money?

[stuving]

The BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) reports to a police authority - as do other forces (with or without a Commissioner) - and more formal documents are on the BTPA's web site. There are annual reports that cover finance as well as performance, though they probably won't give you anything like an objective assessment of whether the BTP is any good at its job.

This is what the 2017-18 annual report's financial section says about income:

The British Transport Authority operates a number of Operating income streams and these can be
categorised as follows:

6.1 Police Service Agreement
Under the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003, the Authority enters into a PSA with its customers
in order to provide a policing service as specified in the agreement. In determining the customers’
contribution, the Authority aims to ensure that its full annual costs are covered and uses a predetermined
charging mechanism that is consistent with the Act and is in accordance with the customer’s PSA.
The customer is normally referred to as the PSA holder.

6.2 Enhanced Police Service Agreements
Any additional services outside of the PSA holder’s agreement are referred to an EPSA. The enhanced
service is charged at full cost in accordance with the specific customer agreement.

6.3 London Underground Agreement
London Underground Agreement income is calculated separately from the PSA Charging Model.
BTP negotiates policing requirements with London Underground charged at full cost.

6.4 Other Income
There are a number of smaller contract agreements with other government departments and external
bodies. The income received from such customers fund specific initiatives that broadly relate to the
prevention of crime and the protection of the wider society on the railway infrastructure. Of these smaller
type contract agreements, contributors include Network Rail, TfL^» (Transport for London - about), the Home Office, the Home Office Asset
Recovery Scheme (ARIS) and other smaller third party contributors.

These customers are, presumably, TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) - though this report can't quite bring itself to say so; there are a few hints though.