Inside BTP’s Force Control Rooms and First Contact Centre

British Transport Police’s (BTP) Force Control Rooms and First Contact Centre are the first points of contact for the public and key stakeholders when an incident occurs anywhere in the United Kingdom.

Communications Officers in our two Force Control Rooms – based in Birmingham and London – take calls from rail staff, other emergency services, train operating companies and Network Rail.

Once they obtain and record details of the incident, they will raise a log, grade its risk and can dispatch officers to the location immediately.

As officers deploy to an incident our Communications Officers will provide them with all the logged information to ensure they are as equipped as possible in their response.

If a report is made by text, phone, email or on our website, this will go through to our First Contact Centre.

When a report is received, staff in our First Contact Centre will reply to the person reporting, raise a log and input the required response – whether that’s for officers to attend immediately or obtain more information.

For incidents that require an immediate response, the log will be raised to our Force Control Rooms where our Communications Officers can arrange officer attendance.

Hear from the Communications Officers working in our Force Control Rooms who play a vital role in keeping the railway safe.