Anti-social behaviour and violence on Nottingham’s trams has declined since 2022 with a new police safety initiative already showing “positive results”.
Data from Nottinghamshire Police shows that reported incidents of antisocial behaviour and violence on Nottingham Express Transit (NET) trams and their stops have declined since 2022.
The data was obtained from a Freedom of Information request after the launch of the police’s pilot tram safety initiative Operation Safenet in June 2025.
According to figures, there were 89 reported incidents of antisocial behaviour on NET trams in 2022 – up from 64 in 2021 – but this dropped back down to 64 incidents in 2023 and 57 in 2024. So far this year, 25 incidents have been reported.
Anti-social behaviour near the tram stops had 78 reports in 2022, up from 38 in 2021, dropping to 62 in 2023 and 39 in 2024. Fourteen incidents is the most up-to-date 2025 figure.
Thirty-four violence-related incidents on the trams have been recorded so far this year. In 2022, the figure for this was 73, up from 50 in 2021. This then dropped back down to 50 in 2023, decreasing to 47 incidents in 2024,
For the system’s tram stops, there were 65 reported incidents of violence in 2022, up from 38 in 2021, but this dropped to 49 in 2023, 32 in 2024, and 22 incidents so far in 2025.
Joanne Bentley, head of service delivery at NET said: “I know certainly that post-Covid, not just in Nottingham, there was an increase in antisocial behaviour.
“Certainly antisocial behaviour and fare evasion on networks increased massively post-Covid.
“[In Nottingham] we’ve had to go through a re-educational process, also our zero-tolerance campaign from 2023, we’ve seen a decline in those increases.
NET’s zero-tolerance campaign saw an increased presence of ‘plain-clothed’ officers on and around the service’s trams to reinforce the message that fare evasion was theft.
Ms Bentley added the campaign has helped “drive down” antisocial behaviour and fare evasion since, along with implementing other security measures, adding: “We are noticing that people are saying they do feel safer now.”
Nottinghamshire Police in collaboration with NET launched a 12-month pilot scheme called Operation Safenet in June 2025 aiming to keep the public safe on the county’s 20-mile tram network, particularly women and girls.
It involves one police officer and one analyst being sat in the tram control room to analyse types of crimes that occur on the tram, along with identifying the individuals who commit those crimes.
The officers have been in the control room since the start of August and while the initiative is in the “early days”, Ms Bentley says it is already bringing in positive results.
She said: “The officer we have is so pro-active, they’re arranging planned operations already, working really closely with neighbourhood policing and looking at different operations around the UK.
“It’s been five weeks now, already we are starting to see positive results from having that police officer in our control room. I’m really excited about it and what it’ll provide in future.”
Part of the initiative also means each tram stop now acts as a “safe space” for passengers, each with an intercom and CCTV, allowing people to report crimes.
Ms Bentley added: “I want to see public perception for safety [improve], we do our annual customer surveys, we want to hear it from the public that they’re feeling safe on the system.
“I want to see the [antisocial behaviour and violence] numbers declining… we’re on a downward trend at the moment which is really positive. I want to see that continue, we will do anything we can to make sure that happens.”