Undercover officers deployed across Metro trains

3 hours ago

Jim ScottNorth East and Cumbria

News image — Plain-clothed officers will be travelling across the network at random times

BBC/Jim Scott Two undercover police officers stand in between two Metro train carriages. One of them (left) is wearing a grey hoody, and grey sweatpants, and has a small black earpiece in her ear. She is smiling at a passenger who is sitting down opposite her. On the right, her colleague is wearing a long green jacket and holding a purple metal water bottle. The Metro train is in motion and inside a black tunnel. — Plain-clothed officers will be travelling across the network at random times

A "Trojan horse" operation which will see undercover police travel onboard Metro trains is under way.

Plain-clothed officers from Northumbria Police will patrol routine services at different times of the day across Tyne and Wear.

They will be told to respond to crime in areas where reports from passengers are common or act on intelligence to catch those who are wanted.

Northumbria's Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Susan Dungworth said it followed the "success" of a similar scheme which used decoy buses in South Tyneside and Sunderland.

Some customers have told the BBC they feel unsafe travelling on certain parts of the Metro, especially during the night.

But operator Nexus said the system remained "safe" and "incidents are few and far between".

BBC/Jim Scott Three police officers are standing by disabled access entry point at a Metro station. They have detained a woman, who is wearing a brown hoody, and are patting her down to check for weapons or drugs paraphernalia. — The BBC followed the operation, where a woman was detained for bypassing barriers and drugs paraphernalia was later found

Project Shield will see specially trained officers board trains at stations across the network, co-ordinating with colleagues in ticket halls and platforms.

"We're looking for habitual offenders, knife carriers, anything like that we can pick up and detect early on," said Sgt Louise Page, of the Northumbria Police Metro Unit.

"Anything we see we think is a potential danger or something that's troubling is something we will deal with."

This also includes spotting those involved in anti-social behaviour, county lines drug dealing or vulnerable people falling into crime.