25.01.17
BTP: Rail industry ‘nervous’ about policing integration
Proposals which may see British Transport Police (BTP) integrated into a national infrastructure force have raised concerns across the railway industry, BTP chiefs have revealed.
BTP bosses made the admission during an evidence session in front of the Transport Select Committee last week as part of the committee’s ongoing inquiry into rail safety.
It is implied that under the proposals the DfT will no longer be responsible for policing the railway as under the current system.
“It is quite right that there are a number of concerns across industry and the key stakeholders we work with, including some of the public,” said BTP’s deputy chief constable Adrian Hanstock.
“There is some true uniqueness about the British Transport Police, which I think is treasured by the industry and stakeholders, and that is reflected in quite a bit of the feedback we have received about nervousness about some of these proposals.”
According to Hancock, a national infrastructure review of policing has arisen from the government’s desire to have a “more flexible armed policing capability” following the terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015.
Elsewhere in the discussion, the BTP said that around 10% of its budget is now directed towards counter-terrorism arrangements, calling it the biggest crime risk to the rail network.
The chief constable of the BTP and DCC Hancock are understood to have attended sessions with the DfT to talk through the risks and opportunities that would be presented by the change.
Transport committee member Clive Efford raised concern that specialist skills might be lost as a result of the BTP integrating with a wider police force.
DCC Hancock emphasised that transport policing is different due to the specific needs of a transport environment along with the “commercial imperative” and the butterfly effect that decisions in one location may have elsewhere on the rail network.
“Railway policing requires specialisms, and I think we have managed to put across our point very well,” said British Transport Police Authority’s interim chief executive Charlotte Vitty when asked to elaborate on the proposals.
“We are awaiting the outcome of that review, but we are very confident about how much we were able to put across in terms of what we do as a police force and what would need to be considered post any decision,” she added.
The BTP is likely to hear some of the proposals for infrastructure policing from the Cabinet Office by the end of January, representatives told the committee, stressing that nothing has yet been formally announced.
“As a police force that operates in this way, we are in a bit of an invidious position, because of course we have to follow the will of parliament, and we will do that; we recognise that our role is actively to support government direction,” DCC Hancock said.
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