Hate crime on public transport
What is hate crime?
A hate crime is a criminal offence, motivated by hate and hostility towards a person because of actual or perceived:
- Disability
- Race or ethnicity
- Religion or belief
- Sexual orientation
- Gender identity
This can include physical violence, verbal abuse and criminal damage. Not all hate incidents will amount to criminal offences, but it’s important to report them to the police to help build a picture and inform how policing is managed going forward.
Similarly, abuse of TfL staff takes many forms including physical assault, spitting, verbal abuse and threatening behaviour. Abusing TfL staff could result in a criminal record.
What you can do if you witness a hate crime
TfL takes a zero-tolerance stance on all forms of abuse, harassment and hate on our network. If you witness an incident and you feel safe to do so, our bystander intervention techniques can help support the victim. Remember only intervene if safe to do so. In an emergency call 999.
❓Distract with a question
Ask the person being targeted a question, while ignoring the perpetrator. Asking ‘what’s the time?’, ‘what’s the next stop?’, or ‘where does this terminate?’ can help to distract and defuse the incident.
📝 Make a note of the details
If you witness an incident, documenting and reporting it can help build a profile of the perpetrator and help stop it from happening again. Take note of what time it is, what the perpetrator looks like, what they are doing and where you are (I.e. what line or bus route you are on). Use these details to report if on a bus by calling the Met Police on 101 or by going online at met.police.uk. For all other TfL services report to the British Transport Police by texting 61016 or by using the Railway Guardian App.
🗣️ Make sure they’re Ok
Following an incident, your support can help the person targeted feel less isolated and more confident in reporting it. Assure them that what happened isn’t OK, see if there’s anything you can do to help and let them know you’ll report the incident too.
Support for customers who are victims
- The Community Alliance To Combat Hate (CATCH) provides support to Londoners who have experienced hate crime. CATCH offer confidential specialist advice, support and advocacy to victims.
- Met Police officers, British Transport Police officers and our staff have training to deal with crime on the network sensitively and professionally. By reporting it, you may be able to prevent it from happening again to you or to someone else.
What we’re doing to make the network safer
We’re continuing to work with policing partners, British Transport Police and the Met Police, to help make travelling on the network safer 🤝
We have an extensive network of over 70,000 CCTV cameras and body worn video cameras for TfL staff. All TfL staff are trained on how to deal with incidents and they can report to the police on your behalf. Also, we fund over 2,500 police and 700 TfL enforcement officers, helping to prevent crime and anti-social behaviour.
An example of how TfL have prosecuted offenders:
A TfL employee attended a platform for report of an unresponsive male. Person was found to be drunk and is immediately abusive. Suspect is then racially abusive to the employee, makes threats of violence and then barges into him with force. The police arrive on scene and the male is arrested. A charge of Racially Aggravated Common Assault is authorised. The suspect enters a plea of “Guilty” and was sentenced at Highbury Corner Magistrate.
About our campaign
The ‘Hands Up’ campaign makes it clear we will not accept any form of hate or abuse on our network. The campaign informs customers of the ways they can safely intervene if they witness an incident on public transport. It was developed following several months of engagement with community groups, policing partners, industry experts and customers. Our current hate crime campaign is based on the definition of hate used by police forces and the Crown Prosecution Service.
Sexual harassment is not generally considered to be a hate crime unless it is motivated by hostility based on one of the aforementioned categories. However, we have worked with the BTP, Rail Delivery Group (RDG), academics and sexual violence practitioners on a communications campaign for our public transport networks to support women’s safety.
Show your support
Use our GIF stickers on your stories and posts
Find our stickers by searching ‘together against hate’ on Instagram.
Best transport in the Western World , I love the tube and buses -feel safe with all CCTV -love London-oh also the UK -UNITED KINGDOM
To be respectful to each other.
My small suggest to put label in tube but in different languages, because many many people from other countries don’t know English language. Hopefully will cost money but if is effective I will be happy.
To be respectful to each other is difficult… maybe we need a good examples who use underground. You know better))
Thank you for this important words!
I am with you
I think TfL services are already the best by far in the country, and I as a gay man I always feel safe on them, particularly the Underground where I find the staff to be always very helpful if you ask for anything – over the last 16 years of using services I can count on one hand any times I’ve had any comments made to be which is amazing – other cities in the UK could learn a lot from TfL where things are very different.
Could I feedback a suggestion though I do think some training for bus drivers though is really needed both on this and also general customer service skills. In your information it says on a bus go and raise with the driver. I feel from experience of trying to inform the bus driver of behaviour going on, 80% of TfL bus drivers would either just shrug their shoulders, stop and turn off the engine and just sit there or just keep pressing one of the automated recordings over and over again which usually the person being reported would be oblivious. Many are quite rude and unhelpful even if you try and ask about a destination. I understand drivers are locked in a cab for their safety, but if there is an issue it’s the passengers who still remain in the firing line, as we are not in a cab whilst the driver just sits there protected often not doing anything about it and it’s passengers that sort issues out. This would therefore make me more likely not to report to them as it would probably cause more tension with the person who has done it.
Great scheme making it accessible for use on the tube especially if people come to need it.