The period leading up to, and immediately after, Halloween and Bonfire Night, along with the school half term, historically sees a rise in anti-social behaviour (ASB).
Inspector Rachel Crump of the Partnership’s police team said, “Often it is just a case of high jinks getting out of hand, but left unchecked it can create a real sense of unease that leads to an unfounded fear of crime on public transport.
“We are not out to spoil anyone’s fun but tackling anti-social behaviour on our network is a major target in our aim to make passengers feel safer during their journey. The information we receive from passengers through See Something, Say Somethinghelps us build a bigger picture to identify and deal with problem areas.”
Now in its eighth year, the non-emergency service has recently been re-launched and focuses solely on bus travel.
New posters and information cards will be displayed and distributed on the West Midlands bus network over the next few weeks.
All passengers need to do is text “Bus” followed by a space to 83010, with a message giving as much information as possible about the nature of the incident.
Anyone witnessing criminal behaviour should ring 999 as they would do normally.
A dedicated Safer Travel Anti-Social Behaviour Team investigates each report it receives.
This is then used to build up an intelligence picture that can lead to individuals causing anti-social behaviour on the bus network being identified and facing appropriate action.
Rail and Midland Metro passengers should use the British Transport Police equivalent, a national number of 61016.
The Safer Travel Partnership consists of Transport for West Midlands, part of the West Midlands Combined Authority, West Midlands Police, British Transport Police and transport operators.
