Rail Cops

Our least known police force
Currently there are just 2,123 officers policing 10,000 miles of track and 3,000 stations, which is a daunting task in anyone's book, but now UKTV takes you to the other side of the tracks with an in-depth exploration of the daily lives of the this specialist force and goes behind the scenes as they tackle crime on Britain's railways and London's tube system.

To Protect and Serve
British Transport Police is a national body providing a policing service to rail operators, their staff and passengers throughout England, Wales and Scotland. The BTF is also responsible for policing the London Underground system, the Docklands Light Railway, the Midland Metro Tram System and Croydon Tramlink. Between them, these rail businesses move some five million people as well as 400,000 tonnes of freight carried every day. So that's a lot of work for our boys and girls in blue! As policing the railways is an integral part of safeguarding the community generally and so the Force forms an essential part of the national policing structure. The majority of the Force's activity then, is much like that of any other police force: law and order policing, maintaining the Queen's peace (presumably when she's too busy to do it herself) and protecting each and every one of us.

The first bobbies
The history of the BTP can be traced back to 1826, when a mention is made of the Police establishment on the Stockton and Darlington Railway. The BTP are therefore one of the oldest Police Forces in the world, pre-dating London's Metropolitan Police by three years. During the early years of railway policing, Constables had specific responsibility for the surrounding area as a County Constable as well as a railway company police officer. In 1845 the first arrest to be made by the use of "information technology" was done so by a BTP officer: Sergeant Williams of the Great Western Railway Police arrested a murderer after a description of the man was passed to him by the newly invented "electric telegraph". The BTP were also one of the first to recruit women to their ranks and in 1908 the North Eastern Railway Police pioneered the use of Police Dogs.

The Crest of Honour
You can tell if officers are part of the BTP by the distinct crest on their helmets. Originally a depiction of a lion holding a railway wheel, this motif was replaced in the mid sixties. Set on a green background, across the center of the crest runs a broad band of silver symbolising our broad highways. On the silver band are two wavy blue bars, which represent the steel railways. In the upper part of the shield are three silver wheels, symbolising locomotives, while in the base of the shield is a silver portcullis with gold chains that represent a gateway, entrance or port. In all, this crest represents the four principle departments controlled by the British Transport Commission. The symbols contained in the badge - often described as "the wheels, the water and the way" - represent the work of the BTP more now than ever as the modern Force also police international services due to the channel tunnel link and the tramways that lie on our roads.

The canal beat
As well as policing our railway networks, the role of the BTP is also extended to monitoring the London canal routes. During the great London smogs of the 1950s a recurring problem was accidental drownings. Many factories were built alongside the canals and their employees often used the tow-paths to get to work. Many workers accidentally met their demise especially if they had called in at one of the many canal-side pubs. In those days a reward was paid for bringing a body to the attention of a coroner but the sum varied depending on which borough a body was found. The canals often formed the boundaries between boroughs so the Canal Police Force soon realised that it was important which side of the canal a body was retrieved from. In some occasions a body would often be pushed from one side of a canal to the other to claim this bonus!

Crime on the lines
Nowadays, as we are all too aware, policing the railways and the London Underground means that the Rail Cops spend a lot of their time enforcing security, which includes checking for potential hazards, suspect packages and the odd suicide. However, throughout the history of the BTP, there have been many famous incidents from a simpler time, including serial pickpockets and professional thieves, most notably in The Great Train Robbery of 8th August 1963. There has even been a theory put forward that the notorious Whitechapel killings perpetrated by Jack The Ripper in the autumn of 1888 were in fact the work of a member of the Railway Police, whose requisite and intimate knowledge of London's underground and overland rail networks allowed the killer to come and go at will, completely undetected. Leaving the crimes unsolved forever.