British Transport Police’s (BTP) 2,774-strong squad of fully-trained officers – supported by 258 Special Constables, 210 Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) and 1,204 police staff – covers the National Rail network across England, Scotland and Wales, the London Underground system, the Docklands Light Railway, the Glasgow Subway, the Midland Metro tram system and Croydon Tramlink. On top of that, BTP also polices international services operated by Eurostar.
The force is divided into seven territorial areas, three of them serving London. The London Underground Area is led by chief superintendent Miles Flood, based at Broadway. The London North operation is headed up by chief superintendent Mark Newton. In this area, Kings Cross, Liverpool Street and Paddington operate a 24-hour policing service.
Finally, London South projects are co-ordinated from Ivason House – located on the London Bridge Road – by chief superintendent Steve Morgan, and take in stations including Waterloo International and Victoria.
Additionally, there’s a police reassurance presence at Dartford, Lewisham and Clapham Junction. The London South Area of BTP dealt with no less than 26% (20,295) of the force’s 79,278 reported notifiable crimes in 2007, employing 353 police officers and 154 police staff in the process.
Turning to Silver Control
British Transport Police’s (BTP) Silver Control is a fully-equipped, wide area CCTV-enabled Command and Control Centre that’s used to oversee major events in and around London. The ‘Silver’ designation is a reference to its position in an overall command structure. Hence, Gold Command is responsible for formulating event strategies, while Silver Command manages the deployment of resources to fulfil the strategic aims of Gold Command. At the Bronze level, resources – officers and team leaders, primarily – will be controlled at the scene.
Not only can this command structure be implemented at extremely short notice to deal with major security and public order incidents, but it also underpins the main command position for large-scale public events (witness the Concert for Diana, Princess of Wales held at Wembley Stadium and the annual extravaganza that is the Notting Hill Carnival).
Originally commissioned in August 2006, the state-of-the-art Silver Control Command and Control Centre was designed to create a pivotal ‘nerve centre’ from which the Silver Commander in charge could access a variety of visual information sources located across the Capital and its surrounding areas. BTP’s Superintendent Ellie Bird – Silver Commander tasked with looking after all London’s major events – takes up the story.
“It’s hugely important that I receive up-to-date and accurate information on the progression of every event, not only concerning what’s happening in and around an event’s specific area but also to do with how, for example, flows of people in one area can place undue pressure on a neighbouring area,” explains Bird. “Our proven ability to effectively analyse crowd capacity at a venue, in tandem with the corresponding movement of people across London’s transport system and beyond, has become a crucial aspect of effective policing in the Capital.”
To facilitate comprehensive event monitoring across a breadth of diverse areas, Silver Control’s officers gather visual information from over 10,000 CCTV cameras drawn from the 28 London Boroughs. Images are also rendered by all London Underground and mainline railway stations, from the Docklands Light Railway and courtesy of police helicopters – Bird’s ‘Eyes in the Sky’.
Harnessing and controlling such a massive amount of diverse visual information from a variety of surveillance installations making use of many different manufacturers’ equipment and operating protocols/platforms is a tall order. In acknowledging the complex multi-vendor control issues to be overcome, the BTP turned to specialist Synectics Security Networks who, thanks to the Television Network Protocol (TVNP) interface, was able to provide an answer via the well-established SynergyPro control solution.
Overcoming initial hurdles
When BTP decided to embark on this project, there was an immediate realisation that, although they had access to images generated by over 600 cameras covering areas inside the London Underground network, any increases in awareness of what was happening beyond the station zones when policing large-scale events would mean tapping into the Westminster City Council scheme.
In practice, the TVNP interface permits connectivity to Westminster’s cameras for the monitoring and control of images, thus allowing strategic surveillance of the key areas surrounding the ‘focal point’ London Underground stations. The success of these initial systems is what led to the core solution specification for the expansion of the highly complex Silver Control facility.
Andy Ford – the Inspector responsible for the overall operation of the BTP Control Room – explains: “At the outset, we posed the question of connectivity to Westminster’s cameras. The interfacing technology we’ve used now allows us to select and view images from over 10,000 cameras. That’s a step in the right direction.”
Ellie Bird carries on the theme. “In the Control Room, I can access visual information fed in to us from across the Capital. That information is invaluable to the Gold, Silver and Bronze Command Structure, giving the vital event or incident information needed to meet both Gold Command’s strategic aims and deploy and support Bronze Command Units to fast-changing situations as appropriate.”
Bird continues: “The technology at our disposal in the Silver Control Suite provides live visual information from any location around the city, allowing me to make informed decisions on the deployment of resources. This comprehensive visual data also allows us to predict how any decisions taken might impact on other areas. For example, if we have a large concert attendance at Wembley Stadium, as we did for Metallica last July, and we subsequently need to redirect traffic away from a particularly overcrowded Underground station or take the decision to ‘non-stop’ a train passing through a station once an event has finished, we need to be fully informed of the situation at the next two or three stations down the line. This ensures that we’re not simply moving the problem from one location to another.”
The car bombs discovered in the Haymarket area this time last year meant that BTP was forced to close essential elements of the transport infrastructure. However, thanks to live coverage from the Control Room, BTP could effectively direct police resources on the ground, thereby ensuring public safety and minimal disruption.”
Real-time CCTV recording
Deploying two SynergyPro workstations to control the myriad multi-vendor hardware arrangements available for selection by operators at Silver Control has afforded each a fast route to all common system functions. Images are recorded in real-time on 26 channels of a powerful modular digital recording solution server located within the facility. That set-up allows all images viewed in the Control Room to be recorded for retrospective investigation.
What it also means is that Inspector Ford and his team of operators can be confident that, when tracking on-screen events, each action taken is fully-documented for future reference.
If evidential footage is indeed required for retrospective BTP investigations, or perhaps to support a prosecution, footage is gathered directly from the participating authorities’ recording systems. “For example, if an incident had occurred within the City’s Square Mile that required evidential footage,” comments Andy Ford, “then BTP’s officers would liaise directly with the City of London Police to audit images for presentation in Court.”
Ford carries on the theory. “The vast scope of selectable surveillance coverage at our fingertips means that professional police assessment can be in ‘virtual’ attendance at most incidents across the Capital, and on an immediate basis, via our video wall display. During large-scale events we may well experience a number of incidents. Effective police deployment to those incidents is essential. Key to supporting that deployment is the CCTV control interface.”
According to Ford, that control interface is both “intuitive” and “easy to use”. Supported by the right kind of training, the BTP CCTV operators have been able to develop new working practices that help them to identify and respond to different types of incident with greater speed and efficiency than ever before. “Over time, that has engendered a smoother and far more effective Control Room operation,” states Ford.
Planning ahead for 2012
The Silver Control surveillance facility will be further developed on a modular basis in response to events across the Capital, and during the build-up to the 2012 Olympics.
The last word on Silver Control must go to Superintendent Ellie Bird. “The Olympics provide us with the ultimate challenge in terms of managing the fluent transit of people in and around London. There will be hundreds of thousands of additional visitors in the city during the Games, and they’ll be watching events at various locations around the Capital. That’s why it’s absolutely vital for us to have the link between the overall BTP command structure and officers on the ground.”
