Liam Johnston

Said the following about Disaster Victim Identification (BTP's DVI):

“BTP’s Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team are made up of police staff and police officers who are based all around the country. This team are called upon when there are multiple individuals who have died as a result of a single incident. They recover the bodies in a dignified manner whilst still preserving the forensic aspects of the investigation. The second part of the process is then assisting the coroner establishing the identity of those persons through the application of scientifically proven techniques.

The team have demonstrated their skills as they undertake yearly training sessions with refresher courses and ‘live’ exercises with other emergency services such as the fire brigade.

Over the last 6 months, BTP’s DVI team have been deployed to the Croydon Tram Crash; the Manchester Arena terrorist incident; London Bridge terrorist incident and the Grenfell Tower fire. The team have gone beyond their duties, working long hours ensuring each recovery was carried out to the best of their ability. In many of the incidents they had to work in sometimes unpleasant and difficult situations, be it the scene itself and/or the conditions and climate that they had to work in.

As PC Philip Stone from the Family Liaison and Disaster Management Team from the MPS has said about the Grenfell Tower fire incident. “The recovery of these victims is the most intricate DVI recovery process I have ever witnessed and the teams are working extremely hard with the Archaeologist to ensure every fragment of the deceased is recovered and recorded.”

The Croydon Tram Crash was dealt solely by the BTP DVI team and the team also took the ownership of the recovery of the bodies from the Manchester Arena terrorist incident . At both the London Bridge incident and Grenfell Tower fire, the BTP DVI team were working with the MPS and City of London colleagues and through the leadership of the team, they were able to work in a unified coordinated way.

However it is due to each individual team members’ dedication to the process and their commitment to do the best for the individual who has lost their life and their loved ones, that the team have done such an excellent job and been able to be deployed to all these incidents in such a short period of time, sacrificing their own time to help others. The last few months have allowed the BTP DVI team to demonstrate their extremely high levels professionalism and dedication, at such a critical and sensitive time.

As Charlotte Vitty Chief Executive for the British Transport Police Authority wrote to one member of the BTP DVI team “The work you are doing is immensely important and vital to not only our Force but for other critical incidents that have happened.”“