THERE is a far more telling indicator of the success of British Transport Police returning to Oxford train station than just a falling crime rate and rising number of arrests.
The station actually feels safer.
British Transport Police reopened an office at Oxford in January last year after a near two-decade absence, during which officers based at Reading kept a watchful eye northwards.
Reading is, at best if you have a train arrive right on cue, 25 minutes’ travelling time and so there was hardly a rapid response available if trouble broke out on the concourse.
That is a different situation today.
And the team don’t just hide away in their office. There is a very visible presence regularly around the station and they are always talking to commuters, which is the reason why it feels far safer and builds more trust.
Their colleagues at Thames Valley Police are a far bigger operation and train stations and a railway corridor a different policing prospect.
But BTP’s decision to reopen its Oxford office contrasts starkly with the locked doors people in Oxfordshire’s towns frequently find at their local police station these days.
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