The former head of the British Transport Police, Andy Trotter, has said he doesn’t expect officers will be “interrogating” people travelling, despite the new Tier 4 rules.
“If you think of how many people were travelling last night through St Pancras, Euston, Leeds, and Kings Cross, it will be impossible for them to go checking everybody scrambling onto those trains is the last thing they would possibly do,” he told LBC Radio.
“It’s about helping people through this, it’s about dealing with very serious breaches of the law, but it’s not about, in my opinion, it’s not about trying to interrogate people about the purpose of their journey and where they’re going”.
He added that BTP officers will be dealing with pressures in transport hubs, people protesting, and “enforcement will be the last thing they want to do”.
“I certainly don’t see their primary role today as putting in road checks, or putting in checks stations, to say where are you going, I think the sheer practicalities of that, even if they wanted to, would defeat them in all of this,” he said.
