St Pancras Neighbourhood Policing Team

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1 Issue 20 December and January 2012 A Message From Inspector Mellor Page 1 St Pancras Neighbourhood Policing Team 2012 The Race is on Page 2 And we re off Page 2 Hollie and Arron disarm Knife man Page 3 Operations Page 4 Champions League Football Page 5 In The Courts Page 6 And Finally Page 6 A message from Inspector Mellor I m gradually settling into my new role here at St Pancras and am slowly getting to meet you all. The one thing that is immediately apparent is the great relationship that exists between the BTP and the staff throughout the station. So much good work has already been done to make the station a safe place to work and travel through it is a credit to you all. Your Neighbourhood Policing Team will continue to carry out patrols and crime prevention stands to ensure that visitors to the station do not become victims of crime. I hope that you all had some well earned time off over the festive period and I look forward to continued co-operation in this new year with the countdown to the Olympics really under way. Inspector Nia Mellor Policing St Pancras as the community it is

2 The Race is on As we say good bye to 2011, welcome the New Year, the significance of the year cannot be overlooked, and with days to the start of the 2012 London Olympic Games, the race is well and truly on. Ask yourself Are you match fit for the biggest event this country has seen in a very long time? Any athlete will tell you it s all in the preparation; how well are you and your staff prepared? It is estimated that on the night of the opening, there will be up to 250,000 people leaving the venue and the impact on the railway industry as a whole will be massive. The hope is that the revenues for retailers will be up considerably; are you satisfied you have enough staff? Are they sufficiently trained to deal with all eventualities from the massive increase in footfall, to the possible increase in criminal activity, and, worst case scenario, a terrorist incident. British Transport Police in conjunction with our partners in the rail industry are running a number of initiatives including Project Argus, which is advice and guidance to staff and residents about a unified approach to a critical incident. Project Griffin is advice on Terrorist Activity and what we all can do to prevent such incidents A number of Table Top exercises are being run; would you like to attend one? Do you need refreshing on the HOT principles? We apply this mnemonic to unattended items to ensure we do not close stations unnecessarily. We have the support of Crime Reduction Officer Tim Ramskill who is more than willing to come and give you advice on general crime reduction matters and lastly we run, as you know, regular PACT meetings at which you are welcome to attend to discuss any matters relating to your community. Let s make sure that St Pancras leads the way as it regularly does, and that at the end of the Games we are rightly where we should be in that Gold Medal position And we re off Nope, not another Olympic themed article but the departure of PCSO Arron Hurley. Arron has been based at St Pancras since joining the Transport Police, and apart from his aversion to wearing a tie, he has been a valued member of the team and we wish him well with his new role as Intelligence Analyst at our Headquarters. A couple of Arron s recent escapades saw him, along with a member of Network Rail Staff, saving a woman who was intent on harming herself by throwing herself off a balustrade at the station, and most recently with his colleague Hollie Joyce disarming a male who was in possession of a knife ( see below for expanded article). Arron has written a few lines for the newsletter. My name is Arron Hurley and I have been a PCSO for nearly three years now. I have had the privilege of being based at St. Pancras International through the whole of my career in the British Transport Police. I joined the British Transport Police when I was 19 years old after seeing an advert on the internet.

3 I have always been intrigued by the police service and always wondered what it would be like to work for them. I applied not really expecting to be accepted. However after a few months I found myself sitting in the training room at our Area Headquarters on a very anxious first day. I trained for six weeks and found out I would be posted at St. Pancras International which I was very pleased about. St. Pancras is a glorious station to work at. It has a fantastic atmosphere, from families going on their holidays to the station sessions on a Thursday evening. Policing St. Pancras is also very challenging and there are always new opportunities to better yourself. Since working at the station I have met people I would never have had the privilege to meet, from television celebrities to the more unusual kind, for example only a few months ago I met the World Record holder for the most body piercing. Away from work I have a good social life with friends and family. I enjoy going out on a Saturday night with my mates, Romford being our usual spot. I am a keen golfer and although shift work can be a pain, it gives me a few days off in the week where I can hit 18 holes. I play with colleagues from work and over the years have built good friendships with them which reflects on my time at work. I hope to make a life long career in the British Transport Police and have recently been successful in a role in our Area Intelligence Bureau which hopefully I will be starting in a few weeks; unfortunately this means I will soon be leaving St. Pancras. I m excited to start a new and interesting role within the British Transport Police however and saddened that I will be leaving some good friends and colleagues at St. Pancras. I ve had a fantastic time working at the station and having joined as a young lad, over the past three years the BTP has matured me into the young man I am today. Working as a PCSO at St. Pancras has allowed me to better myself as a person and as a member of uniform and I have learnt lessons which I will carry with me for the rest of my life. Overall St. Pancras is a great station with good relationships with staff, officers and the travelling community. Everyday is a different one, offering great tasks to get involved with and brilliant new people to meet. Hollie and Arron disarm Knife man Considering PCSO s are supposed to be non-confrontational Hollie and Arron don t seem to have read the rules. On 24 th January both attended the platforms of First Capital Connect to deal with what is generally considered to be quite a routine matter of an alleged ticket irregularity. Of course in our job there s no such thing as routine, and things can easily turn into a violent or, worse still, life threatening situation. On approaching the male he was agitated, and a member of public then advised the officers that he had a knife. When the male failed to respond to requests to keep his hands visible, darting them into his pockets, both knew he had to be contained. He tried to make off and was restrained, but not before the officers had to put up an assistance call. With the help of a couple of civic minded brave Rail staff Alieu Njie and Eric Kivera, the male was restrained using handcuffs, only for the knife to be found in the male s back pocket.what no one here knew was that the male had allegedly been involved in an attempted car jacking outside Holloway Road Tube. The male was later sectioned under the Mental Health Act to be detained in hospital for assessment. Supt Gareth Williams passed his praise to the officers saying Confronting such a dangerous individual in the way you did, requires 3 of great the St. courage Pancras Volunteers so very well done to you both and thank you on behalf of London North.

4 Operations As part of our daily business we run a number of operations and initiatives in support of our priorities, a full list can be found on the web page Just to give a flavour of that here is a piece written by PCSO Dave Crump regarding Operation Gillingham, which he set up and has run at First Capital Connect, and will continue to do so periodically. The operation was well timed, as our Met Colleagues have suffered a huge increase in the theft of mobile phones and Ipads by suspects on pedal cycles who approach victims on the main roads to snatch phones being carried and used. Analysis showed that 60% of victims were not Camden residents, and the belief was that many would be passengers entering or exiting rail and bus stations. The MPS response has been Operation Jockey which has a number of phases. Operation Gillingham provided a useful opportunity for us to work together in offering crime reduction advice to passengers. Here is Dave s write up On the 12 th and 13 th of January 2012 at St Pancras I started Operation Gillingham, a high visibility and anti theft operation targeting member of the public using the rail system. The operation took place at First Capital Connect barrier lines and management were happy for BTP to operate inside of the barriers. This was due to the increase in passenger numbers on this route. There was good positive feedback from the public and about a third of people spoken to showed interest in having property marked, and with crime reduction leaflets passed to them. Many passengers who had property marked said that this was a good idea and were willing to mark their work and home items. First Capital Connect staff members also did take leaflets and other items we placed on display. Many people with children were interested as we had placed pencils and balloons on display so children could have something for the journey on the train. This also helped with getting other peoples attention as they had children at home and wanted balloons for them. I feel the operation went well and hope to continue increasing passenger awareness.

5 Champions League Football The last few weeks have seen BTP officers at St Pancras carrying out high profile patrols within the Restricted Zone to cater for forward and return fans travelling to watch Champions League matches. Sergeant Smith will be giving a prize to anyone identifying the last badge CTRL Tasking Team were heavily involved in the policing operation and were supported by Force Headquarters Football Intelligence Officers and officers from the Metropolitan Police. Sergeant Daz Bradshaw who ran the CTRL operation said, It was a great success and no football related crime or issues were reported. We had a high profile operation deterring anti social behaviour and also used technology to identify persons subject to football banning orders. I would like to thank everyone involved, but especially our Metropolitan Police colleagues and also the French Police who were also on hand to assist at the border control.

6 In The Courts On the 4 th January 2012 at the City of Westminster Court, Babatunde JACOBS was fined for fare evasion and given a further fine for Public Disorder directed at staff at the South Eastern Trains Barriers on 19 th November He was given no separate penalty for a conditional discharge Breach. On 7 th December 2011 at Blackfriars Crown Court Arcan DACI was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment for possession of a false document when he was exiting St Pancras on 20 TH September And Finally Praise for our website and newsletters. As part of the Neighbourhood Policing Concept, our web page and newsletters are regularly reviewed by Headquarters so it is pleasing to see that we scored a maximum for the reviewed carried out in September a October. A lot of work goes into producing a site that we hope is informative and enjoyable. Have a look sometime and let us know what you think.

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