Transport Police to bolster sex crimes unit after outcry over plans to axe it

Rosamund Urwin19 October 2016

The British Transport Police has outlined plans to step up its efforts to tackle sexual offences on the Tube and railways just months after the Evening Standard revealed plans to axe its sex crimes unit.

Under new proposals, the specialist team will instead be strengthened, with an additional four officers in London. The U-turn will bring the total to 16 investigators - two detective sergeants and 14 detective constables - whose primary duty will be looking into unwanted sexual behaviour such as groping.

The BTP will also establish a new National Sexual Offences Coordination Unit based in the capital. Its responsibilities will include overseeing the management of repeat sex offenders and providing intelligence to help officers target criminals effectively.

Assistant chief constable Mark Newton said: “We’re investing more money in tackling sex offending than in virtually anything else, under this proposal. The new unit we’re putting in place means about £1.2 million extra per year.”

This is part of a broader plan for a new “crime allocation” policy that will change how the BTP determines which officers investigate which cases, with crimes being prioritised according to the “threat they pose, the harm it causes to a victim, and the complexity of the investigation required”.

Crimes given the highest priority will be investigated by more experienced officers who will have fewer cases than colleagues. Sexual assault will be given greater priority than “volume crimes” such as pickpocketing and bicycle theft, and come second only to homicide and rape.

“All crime is equal as we deal with it currently,” Newton explained. “But all crime isn’t equal. We have to put our resources into the areas that are most threatening and harmful to the public. It’s gutting if you lose your bike but it is more important we deal with violent or sexual offences.”

Proactive teams - who currently patrol the transport network to deter and detect specific crimes - will now tackle all forms of criminal activity. However, at least two proactive teams will focus on tracking, identifying and arresting sex offenders.

This comes after an internal document was leaked to the Standard in March which showed that the BTP intended to axe its sexual offences unit. This revelation - and the outcry that followed - led two weeks later to the BTP halting its plans to disband the team in order to carry out an urgent review.

“We’ve listened and we’ve been learning,” said Mr Newton. “Why wouldn’t we change our minds?”

Additionally, the BTP is supporting two PhD students; one is researching victims’ experiences of sexual assault, the other interviewing offenders.

“There’s no real education piece to be had anywhere in the world on sexual offending on transportation systems,” said Mr Newton. “We’ve got to understand the offenders. What we’re starting to find out is that they are creatures of habit. They’re driven. They follow, looking for vulnerability.”

Mr Newton anticipates that the new measures will result in a recorded increase in the number of sexual offences - because more victims will report: “I’ll be criticised for ‘losing control of sexual offences on the transport system’. I don’t think that’s fair. We’re saying to women: ‘please come forward, have confidence in us, try to help us [stop] these offenders from reoffending in the future.’”

Around 70 per cent of the sexual offences recorded by the BTP occur in London.

The BTP is now requesting responses from the public to these proposals, with the consultation closing on December 7.

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