From spitting to slapping a child: 15 people cops want to speak to over serious train crimes
Police are cracking down on crimes committed on public transport, releasing images of 15 people they believe can assist with information about offences from spitting on train guards, slapping children and even punching the elderly.
Police & Courts
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Train guards have been spat on, a child slapped by a stranger, and a woman kicked while waiting on the platform in a spate of violent attacks on the city’s rail network – with police now on the hunt for the “cowardly” offenders involved.
NSW Police have released the faces of 15 people they wish to speak to as part of their investigations into a variety of alleged offences that have occurred on trains and buses around the city in recent months.
Police commenced Operation Waratah 4 this month, with officers focusing on violent offences committed against Transport for NSW staff.
Operation Waratah was established in 2024 – and in that time 657 arrests have been made and 1148 charges laid for offences committed against commuters, kids and transport staff.
NSW Police Superintendent Andrew Evans said some of the recent incidents on NSW trains were “horrible”, with train guards and Transport for NSW staff being attacked or abused while simply doing their jobs.
“They are purely undertaking civil leadership, assisting vulnerable people, whether its people with disabilities, the elderly, children,” he said.
“There is no reason why they should be assaulted, spat on, have their property stolen or ultimately be abused.”
In one incident on May 19, a female train guard was allegedly spat on at Mt Druitt Railway Station by an unknown man, who fled after the unprovoked attack.
Superintendent Evans labelled the incident as “cowardly” and “despicable”.
“I’ve watched that particular footage, and the train is already leaving the platform, the doors are closed even before that male makes his way down to the train,” he said.
“So in my view, then we will allege that male is spitting on that train guard for no other reason than, I guess, to take his frustrations out on that person.”
In another incident, a 13-year-old boy was allegedly slapped across the face and threatened by a man while he sat on a train travelling toward Engadine Railway Station on January 8.
“(These incidents) are serious criminal behaviour … We will continue to undertake these types of operations and use the intelligence that we have available to us to target those offenders that do target the most vulnerable members of our community,” Superintendent Evans said.
The centre of the operation is located in an Alexandria bunker, where security teams are watching as commuters move through platforms and tunnels via a huge network of CCTV cameras, enabling them to quickly alert police of crimes and violence as soon as they occur.
“There are more than 13,000 CCTV cameras across the public transport network including the Train Security Control Centre which operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with links to transport officers, police and emergency services – so chances are any poor behaviour will be caught on camera and your actions could result in heavy fines and possible jail time,” Transport for NSW co-ordinator General Howard Collins said.
“The safety of our staff and passengers across public transport is our top priority and any aggressive behaviour against our workers – whose goal is simply helping passengers get to their destination – will not be tolerated.”
Superintendent Evans said unfortunately, several of the offenders caught during Operation Waratah were repeat offenders, who have come up multiple times in their “intelligence databases”.
“We have developed a very sophisticated intelligence collection plan, and we match that against a data set where we are able to identify a cohort of people that are repeat offenders, and subsequently they have become Operation Waratah targets,” he said.
He urged anyone who recognised any of the 15 faces in the CCTV images to contact police.
“During this operation we plan to lockdown high traffic areas on our transport network, conduct multiple firearm prohibition order compliance checks and saturate the network with officers to weed out these offenders,” he said.
“If you recognise or have any information at all about those individuals, or you were a witness to this offending, I’d ask that you call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.”
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