Safer Transport Teams

Report: 7
Date: 1 February 2007
By: Assistant Commissioner Territorial Policing on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

This report provides a progress report on the implementation of Safer Transport Teams. In total, there will be 378 Safer Transport Police Community Support Officers (STPCSOs) deployed to work alongside existing Safer Neighbourhoods Teams in a joint initiative between Transport for London and the Metropolitan Police Service. The staff will be equally distributed between 21 boroughs forming teams of 18 STPCSOs to work within the borough boundaries. The teams will work to similar principles and methodology of reassurance policing as the existing 630 Safer Neighbourhoods teams across London, but they will focus on transport networks and communities as opposed to local residents.

A. Recommendations

That members note and support this joint initiative between TfL and the MPS for the purpose of increasing confidence and satisfaction in the policing of transport interchange locations across London.

B. Supporting information

1. The principle of the role of Police Community Support Officers within the MPS is to support Neighbourhood Policing. That is to provide a visible, accessible and familiar presence on the streets of London and to engage with and respond to the needs of communities. Safer Neighbourhoods Teams are responding to the needs of local residents in their local wards but individuals who travel across wards and across London on a daily basis have different needs, which are challenging to respond to within the current model of Safer Neighbourhoods.

2. Currently, TfL resources focus on the main transport termini and routes across London and reported crime patterns and ‘problem’ routes dictate the daily tasking of resources. This means that the smaller outer London transport links get infrequent coverage. Bromley borough for example has a number of transport hubs and none of them feature on any crime or hot-spot maps and therefore get limited coverage by TfL uniform resources. If the local residents do not raise the transport nodes as a local priority then they will not feature in activity by the local Safer Neighbourhoods teams or their partners either.

3. The Mayor of London, TfL and the MPS as well as transport groups are agreed that there is a need for the visibility and reassurance that this initiative will provide. By providing an increased uniform presence and problem solving activity the teams will target the areas subject of crime and anti social behaviour.

4. This paper updates members from the original report submitted to the MPA Coordination of Policing Committee on 5 October 2006.

Overview of programme

5. The legal contract (Section 25 Special Service Agreement) between the MPA, MPS and TfL details the agreement to deploy 378 STPCSOs to twenty one London Boroughs for the purpose of providing policing on the boroughs transport hubs and links, increasing safety and security for staff and passengers and providing them with increased reassurance and confidence in the police and transport providers.

The Special Service Agreement (SSA)

6. The SSA is still subject to negotiation and has not been formally signed by either the MPA or TfL. It is anticipated that it will be for a two-year period commencing on 1 April 2007. It details the investment of £7.5m by TfL to support the joint initiative with the MPS. In common with similar contracts, it will detail amongst other things, the objectives, conditions of investment, details of payment, termination clauses and work guidelines.

7. The proposal is that the 378 STPCSOs will work in teams focussed on the outer London transport hubs and links. They will work alongside and with the support of the ward based Safer Neighbourhoods Teams, officers from British Transport Police and Traffic OCU, thus sharing and exchanging information, intelligence and offender descriptions.

8. Four objectives have been agreed for the programme as

• Improving passenger and staff perceptions of safety and security on public transport in London.
• Increasing confidence and satisfaction in the policing of public transport networks across London.
• Reducing crime and disorder on and around the public transport network in London.
• Reducing anti social behaviour on and around the public transport network in London.

9. The area of responsibility for each of the borough-based teams will be the transport facilities and links within their designated boroughs; this will be primarily focussed on the bus routes at key times. They will also provide enhanced policing at tube and rail stations as well as taxi ranks and other key transport hubs. They will be intelligence led using partner data sources from TFL, BTP and local Safer Neighbourhood Teams to ensure they are focussed on dealing with the needs of the communities that use the borough transport networks.

10. The teams will be deployed to twenty one boroughs in a phased roll out starting with the South East quadrant (Croydon, Bromley, Bexley and Greenwich) by the end of February 2007; then the North East quadrant (Newham, Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Redbridge, Waltham Forest, Haringey and Enfield) by the end of April 2007; followed by the South West quadrant (Kingston, Richmond, Merton, and Sutton) by the end of May 2007 and the North West quadrant (Barnet, Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon and Hounslow) by the end of June 2007

11. The teams will work to the same principles as current Safer Neighbourhoods Teams. That is they will be ring-fenced from abstractions and work to the needs of the transport users, which are identified through the various processes already in existence, undertaken and managed by Tfl.

Supervision

12. There are a variety of supervision models being used across the boroughs, each team will have a dedicated sergeant as a minimum first line supervision level and most boroughs are planning to add additional resources towards supporting the initiative.

Accommodation

13. TfL have agreed to undertake the work to find and equip premises that have been identified as suitable to accommodate the teams. Due to timescales the process in some boroughs will require short term and long-term accommodation plans, much of which has now been linked to the Safer Neighbourhoods programme of work.

14. The MPS are working closely with TfL to ensure any offers of accommodation from transport operators meet the requirements of the teams in a similar way to that of the Safer Neighbourhood programme. BOCUs are involved in this process in order to meet the operational needs of the borough, locating these officers in areas of high demand within the boroughs transport infrastructures.

15. The MPS are developing, in partnership with TfL, performance indicators to measure the effectiveness of the teams, these will be aligned to those used for Safer Neighbourhood teams within the agreed performance management framework. These performance indicators will also reflect measures against the agreed objectives detailed earlier in this report.

16. The programme will be subject of monitoring through the existing Safer Neighbourhoods Programme Board. The MPA are already represented at this forum and representatives from TfL and TOCU will be invited into the discussions. It will also become part of the central Safer Neighbourhood Units supportive visit programme in order that progress is monitored, challenges are identified early and best practice is identified. It will also ensure that the Safer neighbourhoods Programme and the Safer Transport PCSOs work in a complementary manner.

17. The programme will be subject of monthly review by a delivery group with representatives from TfL, Safer Neighbourhoods Unit, TOCU and BTP; this group will ensure the programme is being delivered against the agreed objectives.

18. TfL already have a strategic performance board currently in existence to monitor the existing TOCU performance, within the parameters of that existing SSA. They will use this as their mechanism for monitoring activity undertaken by staff employed under this Safer Transport SSA. Members of the central TP Safer Neighbourhood Unit will also be represented at this forum

Supporting resources

19. The funding for PCSOs provides for their uniform and equipment, it does not however provide for accommodation and transport costs. TfL have agreed to support the funding in both these areas of the programme.

20. The teams will have transport made available through an agreed car/van rental agreement funded through Tfl budgets; the details of how this process will operate are still being discussed on a borough by borough basis dependant on accommodation locations and the geography of the borough. It is felt that the need for vehicles will be limited, as the expectation of the staff is to use public transport.

Further planning

21. Ongoing meetings are taking place between Territorial Policing Safer Neighbourhoods Unit, TfL and Transport OCU. There are still many issues which are being worked through in detail that include how to integrate the two types of neighbourhood policing, the policing of rail and tube transport hubs with BTP and the appropriate contractual arrangements in addition to those matters mentioned above.

C. Race and equality impact

1. The Race and Equality Impact Assessment has been considered for this initiative and there are no negative implications anticipated.

2. Across the MPS as a whole, 9.6 % of Police officers and PCSOs are from minority ethnic communities. However, within Safer Neighbourhoods teams, 20.3% of police officers and PCSOs are from minority ethnic communities. In terms purely of PCSOs within the teams, this figure rises still further to 32%. In terms of officers on the street interacting with local communities, this initiative is anticipated to continue to provide a workforce that increasingly reflects the communities it serves.

D. Financial implications

1. TfL will provide £7.5m towards the cost of this joint initiative. The remainder of the funding comes through the neighbourhood-policing fund.

2. The income generated through this initiative will part fund the cost of putting police staff into the integrated borough operations functions at boroughs, so that approximately 450 police officers can be released back to front line policing duty.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Detective Superintendent Martin Stevens, Safer Neighbourhoods Unit

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

List of abbreviations used within this report

STPCSO

Safer Transport Police Community Support Officers

SSA

Special Service Agreement

BTP

British Transport Police

TOCU

Transport Operational Command Unit

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