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Transport crime down 70 per cent in the West Midlands

Crime on public transport in the West Midlands has fallen by 70 per cent in the last eight years, it has been announced.

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Centro revealed the statistic ahead of a police investigation which saw a drop in anti-social-behaviour on buses in the region this year.

Numerous figures have been published by Centro showing crime on board public transport is dropping.

Operation Goliath was launched by West Midlands Police in March which saw more patrols be put out on the bus network.

It resulted in a 12 per cent reduction of bus crime compared with March 2015.

And criminal offences reported on bus and rail services across the region from 2015/16 fell six per cent from 2014/15, dropping from 6,199 to 5,822.

Inspector Lee Gordon of Safer Travel said: "Operation Goliath targets areas identified as vulnerable to anti-social behaviour, with a mixture of foot and mobile patrols responding quickly to real time issues identified by drivers and passengers.

"Uniformed police from the partnership travelled on all modes of public transport targeting known trouble spots and included plain clothes patrols and revenue operations."

On March 9 Operation Goliath saw teams check a total of 47 buses in Saltley Gate in Birmingham and St Paul's in Birmingham city centre where 93 penalty fare notices, worth a total of £3,255, were issued.

Officers also made arrests and obtained convictions for assaults, drug possession, immigration offences and criminal damage.

A number of incidents resulting in anti-social behaviour warning letters were also sent.

Transport boss Councillor Kath Hartley, said: "Using public transport now is safer than it ever has been but there will always be some individuals who want to cause trouble.

"This is why we are determined to send out a message through operations like Goliath that such behaviour will not be tolerated."

Surveys conducted on passengers show behaviour such as playing loud music and smoking are key irritants that can also lead to an unfounded fear of crime.

The See Something Say Something scheme has been launched where people can report anti-social-behaviour and play their part in tackling it. Passengers can report issues by texting 'bus', 'metro' or 'rail' followed by a space and then details of the incident including time, date, location and route number to 83010.

Officers from the Safer Travel Partnership can then pinpoint crime and anti-social behaviour hot spots and take appropriate action.

Alternatively they can give details by logging onto safertravel.info or by telephoning police on 101 for bus and 0800 405040 for rail and Metro.

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