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CABLES AND CABLE ACCESSORIES


Cable theft is becoming a bigger and bigger problem, with British Transport Police now ranking only terrorism as a higher priority.DCI Daniel Snee explains what the force does to tackle the problem…


T


he price of copper has risen sharply over recent years and so has its ap-


peal to cable thieves. But they face a for- midable adversary in the form of British Transport Police (BTP).


Detective Chief Inspector Daniel Snee of the BTP says the high demand for valuable metals such as copper has been driven over the past four or five years by demand from some of the emerging economies, which has seen the price of copper go up from £2,000 a tonne on the commodities mar- ket to over £6,000.


This means cable theft from Britain’s rail- ways is big business and is being undertak- en not only by small groups of petty thieves but also by more organised and well-re- sourced criminals. Network Rail says it has cost around £35m over the past four years alone.


It has become such a serious problem that a report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), commissioned by the force itself, recommended in February 2011 that it “thoroughly review” its ap- proach to tackling cable theft.


DCI Snee explained: “There are a lot of what we might describe as ‘cottage-style industries’ involved in this. A lot of the are- as where we are experiencing problems are those with an industrial heritage, such as those with old mines and steelworks.


“Whilst it may only be a small amount of cable which is stolen, the amount of dis- ruption it causes can be huge; it can stop trains. The size the disruption depends on how busy that part of the network is.


“One of the things we are constantly point- ing out is that these crimes are not just an attack on Network Rail – they are an attack on the community. People need to go about their daily business and the perpetrators of these selfish attacks don’t take that into consideration.


“Whilst they may only get a relatively small amount for the stolen cable by weighing it in at a scrap metal dealer, the ripple effect of their actions is somewhat different.”


There have been many attempts by the rail industry to engage with scrap metal deal-


Extract from HMIC report into BTP’s handling of cable theft


ers to try to end this practice – with mixed results.


DCI Snee said: “There are literally hun- dreds of scrap metal dealers across the country, so there will be a variance in the reaction. The BTP has engaged with the British Metal Recycling Association (BMRA) – the group that represents scrap dealers - on an agreed code of practice.”


“The theft of metal from the network, in- cluding live cables, is a significant prob- lem for the rail industry and one of the biggest operational challenges for BTP. Thefts vary from the taking of live ca- bles to the theft of cable in storage and can involve many different locations of crime spread across great distances.


“The theft of live cables results in sig- nificant delays to trains, causing disrup- tion and dissatisfaction amongst pas- sengers. There is also a cost to industry in terms of penalties for delayed trains and for the replacement of cables. It is estimated cable theft will cost the in- dustry £19m in delay penalties alone in 2010/11.


“Despite the force taking action to deal with the problem and making hundreds of arrests each year, this crime is on the increase and BTP will not meet its tar- get in reducing the number of live cable thefts.


“BTP fully understands the implications to passengers and the rail industry of cable theft and has invested significant time, effort and resources in attempting to tackle the problem. However, despite this effort the theft of cable is increas- ing. Now is an appropriate time for the force to thoroughly review, outside of the tasking and coordination process, how it is addressing this crime.”


The recently-launched code of practice in- volves dealers tightening up record keep- ing and improving CCTV provision in met- al yards, DCI Snee said, but he warned: “However, there are still a lot of people who are not members of the BMRA. We visit these dealers frequently in order to determine who is playing by the rules – these visits are a valuable source of intel- ligence.”


Aside from just visiting the scrap metal dealers, the BTP also uses a number of tac- tics to try to catch cable thieves. DCI Snee took RTM through some of the policing options to stop the theft happening in the first place.


He said: “We have quite a large tactical menu we can deploy – we use different tac- tics at different times. We analyse where the offences are being committed; we are intelligence-led. From there, we can either deploy officers at known trouble stops or we can deploy technical equipment. We can also target people who we know or suspect of being involved in thefts.


“We also work in partnership with Network Rail, so while we may be working to detect offences and prevent them from taking place, Network Rail will be undertaking target hardening.


“We also engage in education programmes. These involve warning people of just how dangerous cable theft is. People are going onto the rail infrastructure where there are fast-moving trains with clearly no regard for health and safety.”


Visit www.btp.police.uk/industry.aspx Daniel Snee


FOR MORE INFORMATION rail technology magazine Feb/Mar 11 | 71


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