Joining the Transport Police, any insights welcome

[Aspiring Bobby]

Hello, sorry if this is in the wrong place on the site ...

I am possibly going to be joining the British Transport Police (BTP). I know this is a predominately US forum, but UK-US are closely linked and this is an active forum.

BTP is Great Britain (not the whole UK)'s railway police force. It does nearly all railways, London Underground, a few trams and that's it.

They are national and generally unarmed ( I know, I know!) force and have about 3000+ plus police constables.

So, if there are any railway/railroad/transit cops on here - what is it like policing rail environment? I don't have any mil/police experience, I know the US operates differently with regards to railways, but rail policing cannot be that different!

Any advice/insight would be great please! Thank you.

[clof2001]

Hello, sorry if this is in the wrong place on the site ...

I am possibly going to be joining the British Transport Police (BTP). I know this is a predominately US forum, but UK-US are closely linked and this is an active forum.

BTP is Great Britain (not the whole UK)'s railway police force. It does nearly all railways, London Underground, a few trams and that's it.

They are national and generally unarmed ( I know, I know!) force and have about 3000+ plus police constables.

So, if there are any railway/railroad/transit cops on here - what is it like policing rail environment? I don't have any mil/police experience, I know the US operates differently with regards to railways, but rail policing cannot be that different!

Any advice/insight would be great please! Thank you.

I worked a very limited stint on the rail team for a regional rail authority in Southern California. My experience was the normal paying customers, the business people going to and from work, never an issue. After about 3 days I could easily pick off the passengers who didn't pay their fare. About 95% of those non paying riders were either intoxicated, carrying a weapon, carrying drugs, had an arrest warrant, or a combination of all the above. We worked in pairs or teams of 3 and I would never do that job without being armed.

And crime never really occurred on the trains themselves. It was always on the platforms, the stations or the immediate area surrounding the stations. Every station was a $hit magnet for every type of bottom feeding troll out there. Don't get me started on the public restrooms.

I know bigger cities in America and around the world where transit is more organized maybe it is different, but in So Cal public transportation is an extreme afterthought that is generally a drain on the average taxpayer. If we ever wrote a citation for non payment it was pretty much understood that ticket would never be paid, so we usually just bounced them off at the next stop if we couldn't a
make an arrest for something else.

None of that compares however, to riding BART through the East Bay on a Saturday afternoon after a loss by the Oakland Raiders. I grew closer to Jesus on quite a few of those trips.

Cheers.

[Zeitgeist1]

I worked a very limited stint on the rail team for a regional rail authority in Southern California. My experience was the normal paying customers, the business people going to and from work, never an issue. After about 3 days I could easily pick off the passengers who didn't pay their fare. About 95% of those non paying riders were either intoxicated, carrying a weapon, carrying drugs, had an arrest warrant, or a combination of all the above. We worked in pairs or teams of 3 and I would never do that job without being armed.

And crime never really occurred on the trains themselves. It was always on the platforms, the stations or the immediate area surrounding the stations. Every station was a $hit magnet for every type of bottom feeding troll out there. Don't get me started on the public restrooms.

I know bigger cities in America and around the world where transit is more organized maybe it is different, but in So Cal public transportation is an extreme afterthought that is generally a drain on the average taxpayer. If we ever wrote a citation for non payment it was pretty much understood that ticket would never be paid, so we usually just bounced them off at the next stop if we couldn't a
make an arrest for something else.

None of that compares however, to riding BART through the East Bay on a Saturday afternoon after a loss by the Oakland Raiders. I grew closer to Jesus on quite a few of those trips.

Cheers.

Gotta steal that!

[Aspiring Bobby]

I worked a very limited stint on the rail team for a regional rail authority in Southern California. My experience was the normal paying customers, the business people going to and from work, never an issue. After about 3 days I could easily pick off the passengers who didn't pay their fare. About 95% of those non paying riders were either intoxicated, carrying a weapon, carrying drugs, had an arrest warrant, or a combination of all the above. We worked in pairs or teams of 3 and I would never do that job without being armed.

And crime never really occurred on the trains themselves. It was always on the platforms, the stations or the immediate area surrounding the stations. Every station was a $hit magnet for every type of bottom feeding troll out there. Don't get me started on the public restrooms.

I know bigger cities in America and around the world where transit is more organized maybe it is different, but in So Cal public transportation is an extreme afterthought that is generally a drain on the average taxpayer. If we ever wrote a citation for non payment it was pretty much understood that ticket would never be paid, so we usually just bounced them off at the next stop if we couldn't a
make an arrest for something else.

None of that compares however, to riding BART through the East Bay on a Saturday afternoon after a loss by the Oakland Raiders. I grew closer to Jesus on quite a few of those trips.

Cheers.

Thanks, some interesting points there
Some of that stuff rings a bell from what I have read about what happens over here.

On UK trains, (actually on the trains often) is serious sexual assaults/offences, men exposing themselves, children and women being assaulted and/or raped in WCs, etc. The Transport Police have a national number that can be texted and they will respond. Same with sports etc.

The only armed guys are these (left) sometimes the military police (right) help out, for big sports matches, but that's just in London:

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