[Hypothetical] Ticket inspections outside station premises/boundary?

[najaB]

Bit more specific than that in that they can only detain if a passenger refuses to give their name and address after not producing a ticket...

Yes, I was being lazy.

 

[MotCO]

Why do we need a separate police force for transport? Is it because of specialist knowledge (but I'mnot sure what that would be), or was it to avoid any cross-boundary issues alluded to above?

 

[Stigy]

Why do we need a separate police force for transport? Is it because of specialist knowledge (but I'mnot sure what that would be), or was it to avoid any cross-boundary issues alluded to above?

A mixture of both mainly. Regarding the specific knowledge, there’s so many safety aspects to the railway and dealing with incidents, that a specialist knowledge of how the railway works is paramount. The amount of times I’ve spoken to county police force officers who don’t know the track is live 24/7 365 days a year, or that we don’t turn the juice off overnight is frightening. Especially since it’s often them who respond to incidents in the first instance due to the lack of BTP close by.

Having said that, my view is that each county (or equivalent) would be better off having a dedicated railway revision, than TOCs necessarily spending millions of pounds a year on the BTP. This would enable a more joined up approach to policing which is often not the case now.

 

[najaB]

This would enable a more joined up approach to policing which is often not the case now.

Would it though? Surely it would introduce geographical jurisdiction issues that don't exist now.

 

[Stigy]

Would it though? Surely it would introduce geographical jurisdiction issues that don't exist now.

Potentially tricky, I agree. This would be a potential concern on board trains travelling between stations, but the response would be more seamless as there would be no middle man (BTP) to pass jobs to. At present, BTP won’t even ask local police to attend incidents unless it’s of a serious nature, with all forces playing a part, there should be the same resources available for railway jobs as there are for any non-railway jobs.

There’s no legal constraints (other than Scotland/England?) which mean jurisdiction would be an issue other than the logistics of knowing which county should be involved. It’s no different to local police arresting a suspect and passing it over to BTP as they do now.

 

[island]

That's interesting. I hadn't realised that they have those powers. Are they allowed to use force to detain a passenger in those circumstances?

They are allowed to, if the criteria mentioned in intervening posts are met.

Most of not all TOCs instruct their staff not to exercise those powers in the interest of their own safety.