3 days ago
Glasgow BTP cops promise this if you report a sexual crime on trains
It comes after reports earlier this year that there had been a 52% rise in the number of incidents of Violence and Intimidation Against Women and Girls (VIAWG) in Scotland.
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Spt Lorna McEwan (Image: GordonTerris/Herald&Times) Superintendent Lorna McEwan told the Glasgow Times: 'Nobody in policing likes to see a rise in the stats, but it can be explained partly by people being more confident and having more methods available to report because we've really pushed that message.
'It happens but it still is what I would say is a safe network – there are 15 crimes per million passengers in Scotland.'
She continued: 'Everything related to VIAWG is one of our key force objectives.'
All incidents involving a woman as a victim, including assaults, domestic incidents, sexual and public order offences are classed as VIAWG offences by BTP.
(Image: GordonTerris/Herald&Times) Between January 1 and July 31 this year, there were 50 VIAWG offences recorded by BTP in Glasgow, compared to 47 in the same period last year.
Just under 64% of sexual offences happen on trains, with Central Station being the busiest station for incidents.
As a result, officers also increase their presence in other busy stations including Queen Street and Partick.
In Glasgow, Supt McEwan says the most common offence is minor assaults where there is no physical injury, such as a push.
The majority of incidents occur later in the day from Friday to Tuesday.
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(Image: GordonTerris/Herald&Times) On Friday and Saturday nights in particular there is a rise in sexual comments or touching, with alcohol usually involved.
Supt McEwan praises both BTP for recognising incidents and rail staff sharing information with police
She said: 'People feel more confident to report because there's so many methods now to report.
'Education is also a big piece of it.
'We've actively engaged with the public, rail staff and our partners to ask people to encourage reporting.
'We're getting more reports now from not necessarily the victims but witnesses which is more unusual.
'We've also educated our own teams to be better at identifying things then they see certain types of behaviour.'
(Image: GordonTerris/Herald&Times) However, she added: 'I still think there's a lot of things happen we don't know about and that's why we encourage people to use 61016 when they see something they feel uncomfortable about.
'That could be the jigsaw piece for us for intelligence that paints a picture of something going on.
'The railway is a good location for CCTV, so we get lots of identification and we've got a good detection rate.
'Our detection rate for sexual offences is 65.6% and I don't think any force in Britain can beat us on that.'
BTP introduced its text service to report crimes in 2013 with anyone who regularly travels on the rail network likely to have heard the number 61016 being repeated.
(Image: GordonTerris/Herald&Times) Since January 1, there have been 1910 texts sent to BTP in Scotland.
Supt McEwan explained: 'Every report that comes into our control room gets triaged to see if there's any sort of sexual behaviour within it.
'It might not hit the threshold of a sexual offence, but it might still be sexual behaviour.
'So, the sort of offences where maybe somebody is just staring at you, that wouldn't be a sexual crime, but it would be sexual harassment.
'We would record that which other forces don't do and that gives us richer intelligence.'
Sergeant Sarah Sutherland says BTP's work is 'victim led' meaning no one passing on information has to give their information if they don't want to.
While out on patrol with BTP, she told the Glasgow Times: 'Just because people text something in doesn't mean we need to take statements or go all the way and take it to the courts.
'Its very victim led so even if you feel like it's low level but it's enough to make it uncomfortable and question it then text it in.
'It can remain anonymous, and we don't have to take their details, but they can let us know it's happening, and we can be there.'
Agreeing with Supt McEwan, she added: 'We're trying to make it [rail travel] as safe as possible.
'There is a rise but we're hoping that's down to people feeling more confident to report it to us and we will take it seriously.
