BTP Policing Plans move away from 20:20:10

The 2017/18 Policing Plans mark a move away from 20:20:10

Since 2013, BTP’s core strategy has included targets to reduce crime on the railways by 20%, cut police-related disruption by 20% and increase passenger and staff confidence by 10%. Known as ‘20:20:10’, this approach, created as a catalyst for a transformation process, has achieved much of what it set out to do, changing behaviours and driving the right actions across the Force. Since the strategy’s creation the railway environment has transformed massively: faster than expected growth in passenger journey numbers, changes in the freight landscape, the rapid commercialisation of stations and evolving pressures such as counter terrorism and the requirement to protect vulnerable people means demands on policing have changed significantly.

As a result of these and other changes there is a risk that continuing to focus on 20:20:10 would encourage the wrong sort of behaviours, taking police away from where they are needed most, in order to pursue numerical targets. The decision has been made that in 2017-18 we will transition away from the targets laid out in 20:20:10 to a new performance framework that takes a more comprehensive, holistic look at the work of British Transport Police and uses a variety of indicators to assess how it is meeting its core objectives.

This move will allow us to be more agile in the way we meet the demands of the environment in which we operate and thus more effective in pursuing the core strategic goals. It reflects a similar move being undertaken by Home Office forces and we have been in consultation with Kent Police, which has transformed its own approach to evaluating performance, to share best practice.

This reassessment of the measurements of success is the first step in revisiting the Authority’s overall strategy for BTP, with a view to transitioning to a new one for 2018-2021. The Authority, as a result of stakeholder feedback and horizon scanning, has decided to begin this process a year earlier than planned in order to realise the benefits as soon as possible.