British Transport Police

Policing Britain’s railways, the British Transport Police serve rail operators, their staff and passengers across the country

The BTP is split into three divisions covering London and the South East of England, The Pennines, Midlands, South West and Wales, and Scotland. Their mission is to protect and serve the railway environment and its community, keeping levels of disruption, crime and the fear of crime as low as possible.

BTP employs 3,123, police officers, 233 PCSOs (Police Community Support Officer), 306 special constabulary officers and 1,452 police staff. Due to Covid-19 related travel restrictions, the rail network experienced a significant reduction in passenger numbers. At the start of the third national lockdown in January 2021, Network Rail and Transport for London (TfL) managed stations saw just 15-20 per cent of normal passenger use. This reduction in passengers resulted in a change in demand on the Force in terms of crime. In the initial stages of the pandemic crime levels were extremely low (around 30 per cent of previous levels) but returned to near normal levels in late 2020 (around 80 per cent of previous recorded crime).

Targeted intelligence-led deployments and proactive policing operations under Operation Viking and Operation Engulf to deter, disrupt and detect violent crime, resulted in a 29 per cent reduction in these types of crimes. These operations, together with other crime prevention tactics, such as the deployment of knife arches, contributed to an increase in the number of weapons seized by 13 per cent (752 during 2019/20 compared with 851 during 2020/21).

During 2020/21, BTP officers and PCSOs intervened in 25,997 cases involving vulnerable people. This included identifying and safeguarding children and young people, responding to people in mental health crisis and dealing with domestic abuse, stalking and harassment.

National Strategies

Every three years BTPA sets out medium and long-term objectives for the British Transport Police in a Strategic Plan. This is in addition to the annual policing plans, which cover objectives for the threeyear period from the date of the plan’s publication. In 2020, a decision was made to extend the 2018-2021 BTPA Strategic Plan for an additional year to 2022, due to the current Covid-19 Pandemic. You can read more about the strategic plans in the British Transport Police Association section.

Moving the Needle

In 2020 BTP launched the Moving the Needle action plan, setting out its commitment to tackle racism and unconscious bias and make BTP a fairer more inclusive police force. Moving the Needle is an ambitious, wide-ranging plan which has been drawn up through discussion with a cross section of the Force’s employees.

KEY PERSONNEL Chief Constable: Lucy D’Orsi Deputy Chief Constable: Adrian Hanstock Assistant Chief Constable: Charlie Doyle Assistant Chief Constable: Sean O’Callaghan B Division – Chief Superintendent: Martin Fry C Division – Chief Superintendent: Allan Gregory D Division – Chief Superintendent: Eddie Wylie Head of Corporate Communications: Allison Potter Drake Director of Finance and Commercial Services: Tracey Martin Director of Strategy and Change: Simon Downey

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: Force Headquarters, 25 Camden Road, London NW1 9LN Tel: 0800 40 50 40 Email: first_contact@btp.pnn.police.uk Visit: www.btp.police.uk