Policing Public Transport: A Neglected History

  Reading through this before posting makes me fear that it is not historical enough for this blog and trespasses into contemporary issues.   So be it.   But I do feel it necessary to remind readers that this blog does NOT represent the view of the BTPHG.   These ramblings are mine alone. It is rarely accurate to say that history repeats itself, but it is true that somethings that we think are settled in the past return to challenge us again. When I was a serving police officer in BTP I saw a steady evolution in the status of the force.   The achievements of officers, particularly in facing the ‘decade of disasters’ (1980s) and the acknowledged expertise of BTP in dealing with certain classes of activity (terrorism, theft person, theft of goods in transit, major incident response, football disorder etc) all led to an increasing recognition that BTP was an equal member of the police family.   In concrete terms this had been marked by the recommendation of ...

Sir Vernon George Waldegrave Kell KCMG KBE CB 1st Director General Security Service (AKA 'K') It is very easy when researching the past to develop a confidence in the resources available, whatever they are.   It is an easy step from checking everything available to assuming that you know everything about the subject. Historians study what is left behind.   Most of what we have to look at has survived by accident.   We pine for the documents that we know once existed but did not survive the ‘weeding process’, the office move’ or ‘the flood’.   Few of the records we rely on were created with the historian in mind.      Researchers are often left with scraps -mere hints of what happened.   Often material exists in different forms and in different places.   Research is rarely a product of a trip to a single archive or on line repository.   Indeed, the coming of on line access has fostered the view the everything worth knowing can be found ...

  One of the great battles in the history of railway policing has been the pursuit of equality of pay and conditions with territorial forces.   Despite the Wright Committee Report in 1979 (which led to pay parity) there is still no statutory obligation on BTP to pay its officers the same as officers in other forces.   Indeed the allowances and pension arrangements are still not as generous.   As recently as 2018 claims supported by the Superintendents’ Association of England and Wales for back pay of allowances to ensure parity was rejected by the Chief Constable and Police Authority. I was then rather pleased to read the Essex Standard of the 30 November 1838 which reported that the Directors of the Eastern Counties Railway (the pre-cursor to the Great Eastern Railway and then the LNER) had attended the Petty Sessions (Magistrates Court) at Ilford to update the Bench on their plans for policing.   The Justices were keen to know when police would be introduce...

  WHEN WAS THE FIRST RAILWAY POLICE FORCE CREATED?    William Horwood as Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis                                                    (  Photo: Creative Commons:  National Portrait Gallery) Q            When is a police force not a police force? A             When it polices the railways and docks (amongst others)   WHAT IS A POLICE FORCE? A sure way of irritating members of the British Transport Police force is to remind them that BTP is not a police force.   BTP is not the same as other forces and it is painful for us as amateur police historians to note that BTP is still treated differently to other forces, despite decades of excellence in policing.  ...

PHOTO:  BTPHG  The British Transport Police History Group (BTPHG) are holding an Open Day on Thursday 13th October at Euston.  Details below on the link below: https://www.btphg.org.uk/

  The Daily Telegraph has reported that the British Transport Police intend to fund a bursary for black students to study law to ‘make amends’ for the actions of a corrupt officer (DS Ridgewell) and his associates nearly 50 years ago.   Ridgewell was corrupt.   He fitted up innocent young black men (The Oval Four and the Stockwell Six etc), was involved with organised crime groups and he stole large amounts of property.   The story of his downfall, imprisonment and death is well known but it is only in the last couple of years that the cases have come before the Court of Appeal which has quashed numerous convictions.   Ridgewell also targeted white men (including other serving officers) but the impact on the black community transcends even the horrors experienced by the victims of his crimes.   Nearly half a century on the issues caused by police corruption and racism of the 1970s still casts a long shadow. The Chief Constable of BTP is quoted as saying: ...

  I was never very good at managing people. I am a fan of the direct approach but there are limits and, in the end, most of the time leaders are trying to take their people with them. A carrot and stick approach is normally required. There are even times when a pure stick approach could be argued for. My ineffectual musings along these lines come from my latest excursions in the archives of the British Transport Police History Group (BTPHG). The memorandum below was clearly meant to raise standards – I wonder what inspired its creation and I wonder how successful it was (I think I know the answer). I am sure that there is no gossiping in the modern police service (!), although the phrase ‘general slackness’ did come to mind yesterday when I saw a group of officers from a large police force standing in close proximity to each other while they all stared at their telephones. But before I descend into full grumpy old person mode I would say that in a...