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<p>The Department works with the British Transport Police (BTP) to tackle crime and
anti-social behaviour on the railways in Great Britain. Under their franchise agreements,
Train Operating Companies are required to work with the BTP to manage and reduce railway
crime. British Transport Police officer numbers have remained relatively stable on
the network over the last five years and are currently (2017/18) nearly 3,100 by comparison
to just over 2,900 in 2009/10.</p><p>With growing passenger numbers, the Department
has been clear that it wants to see more train operating company customer-facing staff
on the railways, not fewer.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The BTP keeps records of crime reported
on the railways. Crime figures should be considered in the context of rising passenger
numbers, with crimes per million passenger journeys remaining relatively low and having
decreased overall between 2014 and 2017.</p><p> </p><p>With regard to factors influencing
the levels of report crime on trains, the BTP has run a number of successful initiatives
in recent years to encourage more reporting of crimes, which is likely to be a factor
in the numbers of crimes reported. For example, BTP has a popular dedicated crime
reporting text service - ‘61016’ – which allows people to report offences to the police
easily and discreetly.</p><p> </p><p>The levels of crime that are seen on the railway
broadly mirror those seen across society as a whole, as recorded by the territorial
police forces.</p><p> </p><p>A recent report by the Rail Safety and Standards Board
(RSSB) concluded that driver controlled train operation by comparison with conductor
operation does not increase passenger safety risks.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
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