Project Griffin
Project Griffin’s primary mission is to engage, encourage and enable members of the community to work in partnership with the police to deter, detect and counter terrorist activity and crime.
First launched in the 1990s, Project Griffin is a national operation run by all police forces to brief business and other partners on Counter Terrorism (CT) issues. This encourages those who work in partnership with the police to deter, detect and report terrorist activity and crime, including any suspicious activities.
BTP involvement
British Transport Police (BTP) has adapted this national programme to focus specifically on the railway industry and has recently been running a series of awareness days for members of staff from Heathrow Express.
Attendees are given essential information and guidance on CT. This covers everything from possible methods of attack, recognising, reporting and reacting to suspicious activity to recommended precautions and security.
Speaking at the awareness day held in September, Barry Bishop, Customer Service Representative (CSR), said, “Today has been fantastic! This training is much needed and has been really well presented. It’s helped to enhance working relationships between both organisations. I would thoroughly recommend this awareness day.”
Combating terrorism
Superintendent David Roney who has overall responsibility for Project Griffin at BTP said, “We want to deliver a message to the staff of the partners who work with us that responsibility for helping to combat terrorism lies with each and every one of us. We do this at the awareness days, whilst providing them with the tools and knowledge that they need.
“When we re-launched Project Griffin we wanted to ensure that the original principles and objectives of the initiative were retained, whilst focusing the training particularly on the railway industry.”
Dave Webb, Tasking & Project Griffin Coordinator explained, “In delivering these sessions we are contributing to reducing disruption and also increasing passenger confidence. We are equipping the staff of our partners to deal with situations in the appropriate manner, which helps us to have more eyes, more ears and more feet to assist across the whole network.”
