Why change something that works The joint operations between the Police (CCU) and Railway Security (Transit Officers) were highly successful with the Police targeting the major crime and railway security take care of lower scale crime. Railway security (Transit Officers) would detect lower scale crime and arrest the offenders and hand them over to the Police and on many occasion this would lead to the offender being pickup on outstanding warrants or other matter, this system worked and it worked well for over ten years As with any system there is always room to improve the system but to dismantle the whole structure is asking for trouble. So lets have a look at what history will show us In 1930 railway investigation branch was formed to patrol the NSW railways, and the first uniformed officer commenced duties in 1969 and was known as the PTC Security service. The Patrolmen as they were called had the same qualifications as the NSW Police due to there training in the NSW Police academy with normal Police constables. The PTC security services changed names to the Transport investigation branch some time in the 1970s; the Transport investigation branch did everything that the current Transit Officers did and more. All members were sworn special constables of the state of NSW and had the powers of arrest and the powers of search in goods yards or anywhere goods were despatched or received. The Transport investigation branch also had there own detectives who had passed the NSW Police services detective course. The Transport investigation branch on average arrested 2000 offenders a year for various offences and issued approximately 18000 breach notices. In 1988 the then Liberal Government handed control of public transport security to the NSW Police, who created a specialist unit known as the Commuter Crime Unit, but between 1988 and 2002 crime on public transport increased in a dramatic way. This was due to the Commuter Crime Unit being attached to the Local Area Command were there services would be used to bolster local area commands. There would be times when no units would be available for public transport due to this reason. Then in 1998 the new labor Government took a major step forward for security of the traveling public by placing two Chubb Security guards on every train after 7pm to help bolster the efforts of the commuter crime unit. This was found to be not effective in dealing with anti social behaviour issues or crime on the railways due to the security guards not having special powers to enforce the rail safety act. In 2002 the railways decide to establish there own security service due an increase in fare evasion and anti social behaviour issues on the railways. The authorised strength of this new unit would be 600 and with the commuter crime unit who had an authorised strength of 300. This would the mean that you had 900 uniformed officers on public transport. The Transit Officers with Commuter crime unit had a dramtic effect on crime during the next few years. In 2003 to 2004 Transit Officers issued 104,000 fines for fare evasion and behavioural offences,it is unknown how many infringements were issued by the commuter crime unit. The bureau of crime statistics and research figures showed. . a 46 per cent reduction in robberies; . a 44 per cent reduction in stealing; and . a 10 per cent reduction in assaults Between 2005 and 2010 the incidents of crime continue to decline with the reduction of offences against persons, in 2002 there were approximatley 1650 incidents of theft on the railways by 2010 this had been brought down to 975 incidents of theft on the railways. In 2010 a report was commission into the security function of the railways by NOETIC Solutions, this report made 36 recommendations on how to enhance the function. This report also made remmendations on the future of the function giving three different models and a remmendation to which option would be the best. 1. Transit Only, Public Transport 2. Police Only, Public Transport 3. Hybrid Model, Transits with Police Management The Hybrid model was the model was the preferred model, this report was given to the Government in june 2011, this report cost over One million dollars and the government ignored its recommendations. Sometime in 2011 Transport NSW and the NSW Police force developed a proposed restructure of the security on Public Transport; on the 5th December 2011 this was presented to the Government. It recommends the disbandment of the Transit Function and the security of Public Transport returned to the Police. Transit officers continued to keep the criminal elements under check until May 2012 when the Liberal government handed the security of the railways back to the police. The Police Transport Command was established with the 301 officers and will recruit another 309 by December 2014. May 2012 to August 2013 In the15mths after the introduction of the Police Transport Command the Police have only been able to recruit 7 extra officers to there operational status whilst the Transit Function has lost approximatley 510 officers from there authorised strength of 600 leaving an operational level of 90. This has left a massive hole in the security of the railways. In recent reports in the media the incidents of Assaults on the railways have risen to three a day and Graffiti is up by 10%, at the present time there is no other data availble for other offences but it is beleaved that all other offences are on the rise. The Future The Police Transport Command are a bunch of hard working men and woman and they will try as hard as they can to protect the travelling public of NSW but if History tell us anything. THEN THIS VENTURE IS DOOMED TO FAILURE.. You cannot expect the Police Transport command to provide the same amount of coveridge on Public Transport when you have a third less staff.and you are take on the add security of buses and ferrys. This is what you had - Transits and Police 924 STAFF – 2002/12 This is what you will have - Police 600 in December 2014 Police Transport Command Operational as of August 2013 – (307) This has been tried before and failed,why repeat the mistakes of the past.
Posted on: Tue, 24 Sep 2013 05:53:00 +0000
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