Cops bus ops won't drive out yobs.

Byline: Paul Fulford

IT'S not widely known, but Hannibal Lecter has started to catch the Number 50 bus to his home in Druids Heath. Though perhaps it's some other criminal of equally notorious and terrifying repute. For how else would you explain the massive police presence at a bus stop in Balsall Heath during the evening rush hour on Thursday? Looking out the window, I counted at least ten police and community support officers together with a large number of Travel West Midlands staff and, parked nearby, several police vehicles, including a dog van. An amiable officer popped on to the platform, said something about a "safer travelling initiative", asked if we were okay then got back off to rejoin his mates when he was greeted with rather bemused stares. Now as a green warrior and all round man of the people, I'm a regular bus passenger. And I have in the past in this column complained about the appalling behaviour that takes place on public transport - my teenage son being mugged, for instance.

Or the racist comment that an elderly imbecile chose to share with me. So perhaps I shouldn't criticise the authorities for seeking to do something about the problems that occur. But I'm going to. For this seems to be me to be the sort of high-profile operation designed solely to reassure the travelling public, but destined to do nothing of the sort. The truth is that day in, day out people travel by bus and endure countless episodes of anti-social behaviour that goes unchecked because there's not a police officer or inspector to be seen.

The occasional appearance of a flash mob of plods is hardly likely to make any passenger think otherwise. Nor, for that matter, do anything to make life better for the longsuffering bus drivers who daily face abuse (and sometimes worse) from those without the grace or intelligence to control their tempers. Nor is such a high-profile operation likely to result in the arrest of any other than the most stupid criminal who chooses to carry on even though at any minute an officer of the law will lay a hand on his collar and announce: "Now then, now then.

It's off to clink for you." This is simply another example of that modern trend of appearing to do something while actually doing very little at all apart from massaging the egos of spin doctors and giving those at the sharp end the opportunity to claim to be decisive. What's needed, of course, is for a regular and large police presence - preferably undercover and plain-clothed - on board the buses to catch unawares those who smoke, litter, rob, threaten, vandalise, insult and otherwise make life intolerable for decent passengers. Anything else is tokenism. Or maybe we simply need to enlist the help of good old Hannibal to control their numbers. There's a bottle of Chianti ready and waiting, Mr L..