PM btplondon he should be able to give you some sort of insight.

okie dokie!! Cheers mate!!

I know that BTP have recently in the past couple of years become much more special friendly and they get out a lot more instead of office work like they once did very often.

Orinoco, have BTP sent you a letter at all acknowledging that they have received your application?

Nope, not a peep so far. It's been ages.

Now that's not on! It's only decent to let you know either by post, phone or even e-mail that they have at least received your application. I'm not sure whether BTP do this - but if you haven't heard anything within a couple of weeks, it could be worth a quick ring to recruitment to check they have your app.

a typical BTP day

A Day in the life of ... a British Transport Police Sergeant



Sergeant Alistair Beaton is part of the British Transport Police in London.

This is a day in his life.






I'm a Uniform Sergeant on the London Underground Area of the British Transport Police. We are the police service for the railways in Britain. I have five years police service and started originally in the Scottish area, transferring after three years to the office at Baker Street. I was promoted to Sergeant in March 2002.

Pop...
My duty for today starts at 1500hrs and goes on to 2300hrs and I'm in the middle of running a Problem Orientated Policing (POP) initiative at Victoria London Underground station. Our area recently adopted the POP philosophy, which I would describe as intelligence led policing. It involves the community in identifying the problems that affect them and working with other non-police agencies to provide lasting solutions to the problem.

I arrive at Baker Street around 1430hrs and begin to wade my way through the emails that will have arrived since my last duty. These will include anything from station wide issues, such as investigation management, our area's crime objectives (such as violence) to my PC's sending notice of their work for the previous day.

Once the POP initiative is finished, I will have to produce a report showing its results, therefore I need to keep track of what my officers have done so far, in terms of arrests, persons reported or stopped and searched. An important part of the initiative will include intelligence generated by the officers, so my next stop is at my Area Intelligence Bureau (AIB). This department collates everything submitted to our Force Intelligence System, the POP Analysts will then identify serial offenders, crime patterns within defined locations and provide liaison with other agencies such as other police forces, Immigration or the Benefits Agency.

After visiting the AIB, at 1500hrs I brief my officers on the work for today. I will have five PCs with me today, all in plain clothes. The initiative lasts five days so I change the deployment from day-to-day, such as having uniform officers to provide a visible deterrent, to involving officers with police dogs. They have search dogs that can detect people with illegal drugs. I then give my officers an hour to catch up with their paperwork from yesterday, which includes prosecution files, stop forms and intelligence reports.

Next on my list is to liase with Detective Constable Black, a BTP officer attached to the Metropolitan Police. DC Black is working with the Transport for London (TFL) branch of the Metropolitan Police and is organising the whole POP operation, which involves BTP London Underground, BTP London South (Victoria mainline station) and the Met. I advise DC Black of our intentions and method of deployment and check current intelligence from the operation that covers the area around Victoria railway station.

Down under
By 1700hrs we are in place at Victoria. I have arranged for drugs dogs and their handlers to attend the station along with the Group Station Manager who has put Revenue Control staff on duty too - they are like ticket inspectors. Together, these two elements will form the cutting edge of the operation today. The revenue staff will check tickets, looking for fraudulent travel and stolen tickets. The search dogs patrol the ticket barriers sniffing for controlled drugs.


As soon as the initiative starts the dogs indicate possible offenders and the revenue staff start stop a fare dodger. It is my responsibility to make sure that each officer has somewhere to go to search for possible drug possession. When a dog indicates a suspect, the officers step in, explain the dog's function and tell the person they will be searched search under the Misuse of Drugs Act. The searching officer then takes the person out of public view to protect their privacy and a search is carried out.

After an hour the dogs are in full flow. PC Chamberlain and his dog, Smudge, spot a man possibly in possession of drugs. I go up to him and explain the situation and he is taken to the search room where I begin a search.

The key to a thorough search is to apply a method. From a house search to a track search, when you follow a procedure you can guarantee the result. When searching someone for drugs, my strategy is to start at the top and work down, paying particular attention to pockets and seams. Again, good intelligence plays its part when you need to know how dealers are concealing their drugs. The hiding places include rotten teeth, gums, underwear, socks and soles of shoes, so I usually do a mental checklist of these areas during a search. I also remember that safety is important and watch out for syringes left in pockets and other sharp objects.

On this occasion the search is negative, however the person admits to being a weekend user - a -*test*-('")ament to the dog's keen sense of smell. I fill out a stop/search form with his details and provide him with a copy.

The operation goes on like this until around 2030hrs when one of my officers brings up a man looking rather bedraggled, covered in oil and dirt. The officer tells me that he is claiming to have been pushed onto the southbound Victoria line by an unidentified assailant.


After ensuring the person hasn't been electrocuted (there are 650 volts running through the lines) and has no lasting injuries - just a scraped knee and bruised arms - I begin to manage the investigation into his allegation. The next priority is to secure the crime scene, so a PC is sent with a member of staff to assess the evidential value of the crime scene and secure any available evidence. A second officer is sent to the station video room to view the CCTV and a third is sent to find a member of staff who is said to have witnessed the incident.

The investigation unfolds
After speaking to the 'victim', we establish he has been drinking lager since the afternoon, he is Polish and his English isn't that good. As my Polish is non-existent, it is still unclear what happened. The officer at the crime scene says that several trains have passed over the track where the man fell and a couple of hundred passengers have passed through the area, so there's nothing of evidential value. The officer viewing the videotape tells me the "victim" can be seen to fall onto the line but there is no assailant to be seen. However, due to the poor picture quality, he can't be sure. The member of staff has been found and says that a person brushed past the man but there was no intention to push him on the track. In his opinion, the man was already unsteady on his feet.

Decision time, and given the circumstances I advise the Duty Inspector and CID that one of my officers will accompany the man to hospital. After treatment he will be given time to sober up and a statement taken over the complaint of assault. The witness details are collated to form over a hand-over package for CID to investigate and the operation comes to an end at 2230hrs.

Clocking off
When we return to Baker Street, the officers are stood down after they have submitted work returns for their work today. My day finishes with a discussion with my Inspector over the events of the day and informing him of the ongoing assault enquiry. He will arrange for the victim to be given a lift home after treatment at hospital. So at 2330hrs my shift is over - time to book off on the computerised resource system and off home. Tomorrow is another day.


taken from http://www.bbc.co.uk/crime/fighters/index.shtml