BRITISH Transport Police is facing the dual challenge of rail crime on the increase as re-cession bites and a clampdown on budgets.

That was the hard-hitting message from deputy chief constable Andy Trotter, who has been named as the man who will take over from Ian Johnston as chief constable in the summer.

“The challenge for us is more for less,” said Mr Trotter, 57, a former deputy assistant commissioner, crime, for the Metropolitan Police, who joined BTP in 2004.

Mr Trotter, who led the media response to the London terrorist attacks in London in 2005, said BTP had, under Ian Johnston, made significant improvements in performance during the past five years, with crime down, detection up and the force on a sound financial footing.

He stressed that BTP – which is largely funded by the train companies – would continue to drive down crime and disorder on the railway. But there were a number of significant police challenges to be faced, from counter terrorism operations to the policing of the Olympics in 2012 – all at a time when BT Police finances were under even greater scrutiny.

“The train companies which fund us are clearly facing the problems of falling receipts, with regulated fares likely to go down next year.”
He said that although crime had been falling on the railway for around five years, there had recently been an increase in certain types of crime, such as theft from passengers and cable theft because of the increasing price of copper.

Mr Trotter said that BTP had made £10 million of efficiencies last year without harming frontline police operations and its level of support staff was one of the lowest of any police force.

Nationally, the force has 3,000 frontline officers and around 1,000 support staff “We have not got a lot of fat to cut and we have to maintain our level of police officers. We can mobilise only officers when there is a serious incident such as a train crash or terrorism, not support staff. ”

The deputy chief constable, who started his police career with the ‘Met’ in 1970, added: “I am enormously proud of what people in BTP have done in the last few years. We are very well regarded by colleagues in other forces.

“The challenge for us now is how to maintain and improve that performance.

“There will be tough times ahead and I will be looking at a whole range of our activities to see where we can drive down any wasteful costs.

Nothing will be off limits. “But I am passionate that we continue to drive down crime and disorder.”

Paying tribute to the work of Ian Johnston, Mr Trotter said he had worked with him in three forces. “For me he is the outstanding police officer of his generation.

“There have been huge improvements made to the force under the leadership of Ian Johnston over the last few years which have ensured that the benefits of a dedicated force for Britain’s railways is experienced by both passengers and staff.”