1,000 crimes recorded at train stations in year
BRITISH Transport Police had to deal with more than 1,000 crimes at Birmingham’s New Street, Snow Hill and Moor Street stations in 12 months.
There were 1,030 recorded incidents between April 2018 and March 2019.
Unsurprisingly, New Street station – Birmingham’s biggest and busiest – recorded the lion’s share with 935 crimes. The next was Moor Street recording 58 crimes over the same period followed by Snow Hill Station
with 37. Public order offences topped the list of crimes at New Street with 178 offences between April 2018 and March 2019. Violent and sexual offences ranked second with 166.
Other crimes committed include shoplifting, robbery, possession of weapons and drug dealing.
Public Order also topped the list of offences at Moor Street with 17 recorded crimes and violent and sexual offences were second with 13. Other offences included robbery, criminal damage, possession of weapons and theft.
And public order
offences
were the most prevalent crimes at Snow Hill with 21 offences committed between the same period.
The incidents were recorded within railway station buildings and the figures do not include crimes committed on streets surrounding the terminal buildings. The figures are published on the website Police.gov. uk.
In one incident, budding entrepreneur Stefan Phillip was jailed for 20 months back in October after launching a brutal attack on a train revenue officer – because he fined him for travelling without buying a ticket.
A British Transport Police spokesman said the force was working closely with Network Rail and train operators to try and reduce crime.
He said: “It is a top priority for British Transport Police and we are committed to ensuring that the railway is a hostile environment for criminals to operate.
“During 2017/18, more than 54 million passengers passed through Birmingham’s busiest stations. The overwhelming majority of these journeys were crime-free, therefore it is important to remember that it is rare to become a victim of crime on the railway. Of course, the force will continue to work closely with Network Rail and train operating companies to improve station security and deny criminals the ability to commit crime.
“Project Servator is just one of the highly visible and unpredictable patrols we regularly deploy to disrupt a wide range of criminal activity on Birmingham’s transport network.
“Passengers and rail staff remain the eyes and ears of the transport network and we would urge them to report crime to us by sending British Transport Police a text to 61016. In an emergency please dial 999.”