CRIME & SAFETY
© West Midlands Police Curbing cable theft on the railway
RTM’s David Stevenson looks at how concerted efforts by the rail industry and transport policing authorities have been tackling the menacing issue of cable theft.
D
espite the National Metal Theft Taskforce (NMTT) ceasing to operate from October
this year, the British Transport Police (BTP) is confident that forces and industries affected by metal theft are now in a position to deal with this issue.
Head of the NMTT, Detective Superintendent Alison Evans told RTM: “Though the taskforce will cease to operate in October, the work will carry on and we are confident all police forces, and industries affected by metal theft, are well-equipped to continue to make life difficult for metal thieves and unscrupulous metal recyclers.”
Det Supt Evans’ views do seem to be backed up by the facts. Cable theft on the railways is now in decline, with the number of incidents recorded by Network Rail falling 37.6% from 287 in 2012-13 to 179 in the financial year 2013- 14.
Not long ago, in 2011, metal theft was hugely disruptive and seemed out-of-control, growing by 70%. A Commons transport committee report then called it a ‘growth industry’ in the UK.
That year proved to be the turning point, with huge amounts of collaborative industry
48 | rail technology magazine Aug/Sep 14
and police work thrown at the problem. The BTP says that concerted effort – including enforcement action,
National Metal Theft Taskforce partnership working
with other police forces, Network Rail, train operators and many other agencies – has brought about “great success”.
According to BTP, over two years, cable crime declined by more than half, with a 47% drop during 2012-13. Within that, theft of live operational cable, which has the potential to cause massive disruption to train services, was down 56% in 2012-13, from 1,114 to 491 offences.
There was also an 83% rise in the number of people arrested and charged for metal theft.
Millie Banerjee, chair of the British Transport Police Authority (BTPA), said: “In the past few years metal theft presented a serious problem to the railways, potentially endangering the lives of the travelling public and threatening the efficient running of the rail network which impacted on the economy of our country.
“The Authority made tackling this crime a national priority and today, BTP, under the leadership of Chief Constable Paul Crowther, has made huge progress by significantly reducing metal theft on the railway lines.”
Following the 2011 nadir, the threat that metal thieves posed to the railways (as well as other sectors like telecoms and construction) led the government to fund the NMTT. During its time, the taskforce has developed intelligence, coordinated activity and targeted criminal networks – individual thieves but also the wider criminal market, including ‘rogue elements’ of the scrap metal industry.
By April 2013, some success was already apparent – enough for Network Rail to launch a big communications push stressing how far delay minutes caused by cable theft had fallen in each region (22% in the Western region, 41% in Wales, 43% in the East Midlands, a startling 93% in west and north Yorkshire, 66% in south Yorkshire, 44% in the north east, 86% in Anglia, 54% in the north west and West Midlands, and so on).
In July 2014, the Home Office and Department for Transport agreed to provide a further £500,000 in funding to the NMTT to make its final months as effective as possible, and to continue its hugely successful programme of coordinated national days of action.
Transport minister Baroness Kramer said then:
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