Paul Rackstraw

Said the following about Serrano Safeguarding Team working on Operation Beach:

“We are nominating the Serrano Safeguarding Team working on Operation Beach for team of the year.

The Serrano Safeguarding Officers operation began as a 12-week trial in 2021. The project was such a success that it became permanent soon after the trial ended.

The five primary objectives of the project are to:

1. Reduce fare evasion significantly and keep all those who haven’t purchased tickets out of accessing the platforms/ trains.

2. Focus on reducing non-ticket/revenue bylaw offences through issuing MG 11s.

3. Reduce incidents that escalate to assault.

4. Identify and support with safeguarding incidents throughout the station.

5. Communicate with the on-train teams to build intelligence and support for on-train activities relating to passengers boarding and exiting at Grays, a station that was seeing a high number of illegal and antisocial incidents. Based on c2c, BTP and Amulet data, Grays station had high levels of assaults, fare evasion and low-level crime. We also believed that gangs were using this station to enter the network and then carry out robberies on trains.

We decided to pilot a scheme where we removed the existing Gateline staff and replaced them with four Serrano Safeguarding Officers (two on each platform/ticket barrier). They were Gateline trained and given a specific brief to focus on keeping passengers without

a ticket out and to safeguard passengers at the station.

Initially, staff assaults increased given that fare evaders and potential criminals were being challenged, but over a four week period that reduced. During the 12-week trial, key results included:

• Assaults and antisocial behaviour reduced by over 60 per cent.

• 146 fare evaders were stopped. 88 percent bought a ticket while just 3 percent pushed through officers and got away.

• 30 safeguarding actions were carried out, including suicide prevention, identifying and supporting at-risk children, and locating a missing person.

• BTP calls to service were reduced significantly.

• The station became a place of safety.

On two separate occasions, young men came to the station for safety from Grays town centre after being chased by a gang as they knew they would be looked after by our Serrano

Safeguarding Officers.

In addition to crime reduction, Operation Serrano has helped increase ticket transactions and revenue growth. Specifically at Grays station during the trial period, the station saw four

of the top five weeks of the year for transactions. This played a part in significant revenue growth at Grays.

From November 2023 we will be increasing the number of Serrano Safeguarding Officers from 35 to 60. This increase has come from the evidence of the impact that the Serrano Safeguarding team, supported by data and body-worn video to prove the impact that they are having.“