See it. Say it. Sorted.

[Lewisham2221]

Most people have smart phones so they could search how to contact police by text. Hiding in a cupboard with a basic mobile but also being a rail user is starting to sound a bit unlikely.
I would prefer posters to announcements every few minutes.

Ah yes - my life is in danger, I already know a number that I can text to contact the police, let me waste more valuable time asking Google if there's a better way for me to do almost exactly the same thing...

 

[TUC]

I think we should keep it. For the people who don't take any notice of it, 61016 is likely drilled into their head also. For people who aren't used to it, it's useful information. To that end, I think it serves its purpose pretty well.

Only for people who take notice of repetitive information. For myself, I've just realised that, although the slogan is in my head, I couldn't remember the number. Probably because I switch off and get on with something more interesting when such repetitive announcements come on. I'm not the only one,

 

[styles]

Only for people who take notice of repetitive information. For myself, I've just realised that, although the slogan is in my head, I couldn't remember the number. Probably because I switch off and get on with something more interesting when such repetitive announcements come on. I'm not the only one,

You may not be the only one, sure, but given the number of memes and short form videos online mocking the 61016 announcement, and the engagement they get, I suspect it's a minority position.

I am also, in all honesty, skeptical of people saying they've heard the announcement so much they know the words but not 61016, especially since the numbers come before the 'See it, say it, sorted.' bit of most announcements.

Even if those proclamations were true, it wouldn't show that the announcement does any harm - merely that it doesn't reach 100% of passengers, which no campaign ever will, so I find it an unconvincing argument against having the announcement personally.

 

[Krokodil]

You may not be the only one, sure, but given the number of memes and short form videos online mocking the 61016 announcement, and the engagement they get, I suspect it's a minority position.

There's no such thing as bad publicity, as they say

 

[Bikeman78]

Ah yes - my life is in danger, I already know a number that I can text to contact the police, let me waste more valuable time asking Google if there's a better way for me to do almost exactly the same thing...

I'm afraid you have lost me.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Jul 2025 ==

You may not be the only one, sure, but given the number of memes and short form videos online mocking the 61016 announcement, and the engagement they get, I suspect it's a minority position.

I am also, in all honesty, skeptical of people saying they've heard the announcement so much they know the words but not 61016, especially since the numbers come before the 'See it, say it, sorted.' bit of most announcements.

Even if those proclamations were true, it wouldn't show that the announcement does any harm - merely that it doesn't reach 100% of passengers, which no campaign ever will, so I find it an unconvincing argument against having the announcement personally.

It doesn't do any physical harm but it's incredibly annoying. What problem is it trying to solve that is unique to the UK? Put it another way, what needs to happen, or stop happening, for it to be switched off?

 

[Dr Hoo]

How is it not ‘interesting’? I saved it into my phone and have subsequently used it to advise of an apparently distressed lone female on a station. The police attended and later thanked me for my text.

I’ve even heard a toddler in a pushchair reciting it from memory!

 

[CaptainHaddock]

Put it another way, what needs to happen, or stop happening, for it to be switched off?

I thought it was introduced in 2005 in response to the London bombings so I was quite surprised to find that it was only introduced back in 2016 according to this article.

New National Rail Security campaign starts today: 'See it. Say it. Sorted.'

Campaign starts today at major railway stations and will be rolled out across the rest of network in England, Scotland and Wales.

www.gov.uk

I wonder why the government of the day suddenly decided in that year that the railway had become a really scary place? Anyway, I believe that, much as the vast majority of us want to get rid of it, it's a government policy that the TOCs have to adhere to. Given that the current government is even more authoritarian than the last one, I can't see it going any time soon.

 

[styles]

It doesn't do any physical harm but it's incredibly annoying. What problem is it trying to solve that is unique to the UK? Put it another way, what needs to happen, or stop happening, for it to be switched off?

It's trying to inform passengers that there is a discreet way of contacting the British Transport Police.

It manages to do this very well given the number of engagements which comes through 61016.

It doesn't need to be switched off. I mean potentially if we completely eliminated all crime on public transport, but that's never going to happen.

Baffling to hear it described not just as annoying but incredibly annoying.

Are you genuinely incredibly annoyed by it? Because I'd suggest talking therapy if so.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Jul 2025 ==

I wonder why the government of the day suddenly decided in that year that the railway had become a really scary place? Anyway, I believe that, much as the vast majority of us want to get rid of it, it's a government policy that the TOCs have to adhere to.

Citation required!

There's plenty of people here suggesting it's helpful citing real examples of it making a difference.

Given that the current government is even more authoritarian than the last one, I can't see it going any time soon.

It's authoritarian to tell people how to contact the police if they have a concern?

 

[Lewisham2221]

I'm afraid you have lost me.

Which part did I lose you on?

Your post - which I quoted - very much appeared to be suggesting that somebody who was hiding in a cupboard, fearing for their life, should spend precious time using their smartphone to perform a web search for "ways to discreetly contact the police in an emergency" (or similar) rather than using that same smartphone to quickly send a text message to the police using a number that they already know. You added something about people having a non-smartphone, which was totally irrelevant.

It doesn't do any physical harm but it's incredibly annoying. What problem is it trying to solve that is unique to the UK? Put it another way, what needs to happen, or stop happening, for it to be switched off?

You need to completely eradicate (or at the very least, vastly reduce) both crime and mental health issues from the railways.

I don't know how we compare with other nations when it comes to antisocial behaviour, sexual assault/unwanted sexual behaviour, violence, mental health concerns and suicide attempts on the railway network.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

It's authoritarian to tell people how to contact the police if they have a concern?

No, it's authoritative to repeat the same message over and over again and also implies that being on a train or a station is inherently unsafe and that you should treat your fellow passengers with suspicion. It's also patronising in the extreme, there surely can't be a person in the country who doesn't know how to contact the police and even if there was, people can access search engines on their phones. Finally, it's so vague as to being meaningless - can anyone actually define what "something that doesn't look right" actually mean?

 

[styles]

No, it's authoritative to repeat the same message over and over again and also implies that being on a train or a station is inherently unsafe and that you should treat your fellow passengers with suspicion. It's also patronising in the extreme, there surely can't be a person in the country who doesn't know how to contact the police and even if there was, people can access search engines on their phones. Finally, it's so vague as to being meaningless - can anyone actually define what "something that doesn't look right" actually mean?

I really don't agree that's the definition of authoritarianism.

Nor do I agree it says you should treat all your fellow passengers with suspicion.

Nor do I agree that people would know the 61016 SMS number, particularly foreign visitors.

Nor do I think it's helpful to have people trying to Google things with poor data signal to try and contact the police.

Nor do I think it's so vague as to be meaningless. Of course it's not going to be so prescriptive that it tries to outline specific examples of when to use the number - that would merely rile up the anti-announcement crowd even more. I'm not aware of widespread misuse of this SMS service to report non-police matters such as suspicious fashion choices for example.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Was on a train yesterday where the guard actually said "remember the three 'S's etc." which i hadn't heard before

EMR and XC do that - EMR more militantly than XC. Ghastly.

 

[Pyewipecarshed]

I once read/heard somewhere that human beings are less likely to listen to- and retain the information from- the end of a sentence. So if the announcement ended with the number people would not remember it. However by ending with the "see it" etc. people retain the number.

Most people have smart phones so they could search how to contact police by text. Hiding in a cupboard with a basic mobile but also being a rail user is starting to sound a bit unlikely.
I would prefer posters to announcements every few minutes.

If you're in a cupboard you can probably get enough signal to make a call but not to Google the number!

I wonder why the government of the day suddenly decided in that year that the railway had become a really scary place? Anyway, I believe that, much as the vast majority of us want to get rid of it, it's a government policy that the TOCs have to adhere to. Given that the current government is even more authoritarian than the last one, I can't see it going any time soon.

I'm afraid you have lost me.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Jul 2025 ==


It doesn't do any physical harm but it's incredibly annoying. What problem is it trying to solve that is unique to the UK? Put it another way, what needs to happen, or stop happening, for it to be switched off?

The majority of the threats that the police/MI5 etc. detect are never made public, but there's a good chance something happened behind the scenes that caused the announcement to be introduced. And it has probably been retained for similar reasons.

Finally, it's so vague as to being meaningless - can anyone actually define what "something that doesn't look right" actually mean?

I wouldn't say it was meaningless or particularly vague, but it has to be euphemistic to some extent. If you announced"if you see a bomb" or "look out for someone waving a gun" you would cause panic!

 

[TUC]

You may not be the only one, sure, but given the number of memes and short form videos online mocking the 61016 announcement, and the engagement they get, I suspect it's a minority position.

I am also, in all honesty, skeptical of people saying they've heard the announcement so much they know the words but not 61016, especially since the numbers come before the 'See it, say it, sorted.' bit of most announcements.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who can recall the content of multiple TV and radio adverts without being able to remember what the product being sold is. The same is true when it comes to 61016 as the product.

 

[gg1]

I once read/heard somewhere that human beings are less likely to listen to- and retain the information from- the end of a sentence. So if the announcement ended with the number people would not remember it. However by ending with the "see it" etc. people retain the number.

This article I came across a few months ago says the opposite, that information contained at the end of a list is more likely to be remembered than the beginning. Although it's talking about lists rather than the content of a statement, it's logical the same would apply:
https://www.verywellmind.com/the-recency-effect-4685058

Items found at the end of the list that are learned most recently are recalled best (the recency effect), while the first few items are also recalled better than those found in the middle (the primacy effect).

This is certainly the way my short term memory works, though maybe there are people for whom the reverse is true. Also like other posters on this thread, I didn't remember the 61016 number despite hearing the message literally hundreds of times.

 

[Dr Hoo]

As a neurodiverse individual myself I have no difficulty in accepting that some people may not register or remember a five-digit number despite hearing it hundreds of times.

However; given that it might literally be the difference between life and death for someone one of these days

SAVE
IT
INTO
YOUR
PHONE
NOW!

61016

(Please.)

 

[Krokodil]

It doesn't do any physical harm but it's incredibly annoying. What problem is it trying to solve that is unique to the UK?

You think that the UK is the only country where there are automated announcements at railway stations telling passengers how to report things to the police (complete with a phone number)? I've definitely heard such announcements in Poland.

 

[TUC]

I do suspect it's one of those issues where less is more. Hearing the message several times in every journey just turns it in a stereotype/basis for a joke. Including it more randomly so that, for example, a regular traveller may hear the message a couple of times a week would be far more effective p.

 

[Siemens Trains]

For me, the verb 'to sort' is to arrange items in some kind of pattern, not to deal with something, that would be 'to sort it out'. Once I have arranged the said items, they would be 'sorted'; something dealt with would be 'I've sorted that out'. This use of 'to sort' and 'sorted' to mean the latter is, so far as I can tell, something copied from telly crime dramas, where some East End heavy grunts 'sor'id' after having fulfilled his task of burying a corpse or the like. Why it's used as a slogan, and one that is seemingly broadcast over the train's tannoy after every stop, is beyond me. It's been used for far too long, and either needs to be replaced by something less grating, or -- better -- not replaced at all, thereby helping to give passengers a more relaxing journey.

No doubt you're correct that it's a colloquial use of the past tense, but given you've recognised the abbreviation surely you can understand why it's used as a slogan.
I know this forum attracts members who take things very literally but using a double meaning is a fairly standard approach in advertising. Firstly implying the process of reporting is relatively straightforward (like burying a corpse, you can move on with clear conscience) and secondly that the act of reporting will lead to said issue being resolved rapidly - ie the authorities attended to the observation 'yesterday'.
Of course accuracy and whether complaints are genuinely acted upon is another matter altogether.
Say Player's Please. Most People Do! Probably wrong, but still memorable.
My Goodness, My Guinness and Guinness Is Good For You - I hardly think so, however they benefit from alliteration to promote the brand.
I expect both of the above examples were sufficiently effective.

 

[Dr Hoo]

The basic concept was being used in Perth, Western Australia, as far back as 2015. (Photo shows a ‘car card’ on a Perth suburban train with the slogan SEE SOMETHING - illustrated by an owl, a species noted for the extreme acuity of its eyesight; SAY SOMETHING - illustrated by a parrot, a species noted for its loud and piercing call including vocalisation when trained.)

 

[The exile]

It doesn't do any physical harm but it's incredibly annoying.

The potential harm it is doing is that it is contributing to the increase in the proportion of people who tune out all announcements and just carry on their conversations. Where the volume on the on train pa is set too low this can lead to not only them having no idea what was said, but everyone else in the carriage as well.

 

[FrontSideBus]

You know it

The potential harm it is doing is that it is contributing to the increase in the proportion of people who tune out all announcements and just carry on their conversations. Where the volume on the on train pa is set too low this can lead to not only them having no idea what was said, but everyone else in the carriage as well.

You know it's going to be a good one when it starts with "Ladies and Gentlemen, if there are any passengers who are asleep or have headphones on, please alert them to listen to the following announcement" which usually follows with being booted off the train at Carlisle to to the ensuing chaos as all services on the main line are blocked

 

[physics34]

It's trying to inform passengers that there is a discreet way of contacting the British Transport Police.

It manages to do this very well given the number of engagements which comes through 61016.

It doesn't need to be switched off. I mean potentially if we completely eliminated all crime on public transport, but that's never going to happen.

Baffling to hear it described not just as annoying but incredibly annoying.

Are you genuinely incredibly annoyed by it? Because I'd suggest talking therapy if so.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Jul 2025 ==


Citation required!

There's plenty of people here suggesting it's helpful citing real examples of it making a difference.

It's authoritarian to tell people how to contact the police if they have a concern?

As I stated in an earlier post I heard it 14 times between Edinburgh and Sutton. It was bordering on ' incredibly ' annoying. To me it gives too much of a negative view of the railway,.that you should be on high alert all the time, when surely you should be relaxing when travelling long distance. Add to that a silly and overused slogan.

 

[FrontSideBus]

As I stated in an earlier post I heard it 14 times between Edinburgh and Sutton. It was bordering on ' incredibly ' annoying. To me it gives too much of a negative view of the railway,.that you should be on high alert all the time, when surely you should be relaxing when travelling long distance. Add to that a silly and overused slogan.

You'd think putting it on a small sticker, on let's say, every other seat back would be better than bleating it out over the PA every five minutes like Ryanair do with advertising their scratch cards and other nonsense lol.

 

[AlterEgo]

Was on a train yesterday where the guard actually said "remember the three 'S's etc." which i hadn't heard before

Shower, shave, and the other thing.

 

[The exile]

You know it

You know it's going to be a good one when it starts with "Ladies and Gentlemen, if there are any passengers who are asleep or have headphones on, please alert them to listen to the following announcement" which usually follows with being booted off the train at Carlisle to to the ensuing chaos as all services on the main line are blocked

On the particular occasion I’m thinking of, I left the train at Bath really hoping that the “ladies” concerned were travelling to Chippenham as by then I’d worked out that the announcement heralded an unscheduled non-stop run from Bath to Reading.

 

[Cell2025]

I'm a person who does get annoyed (unreasonably so according to my wife) by nanny state etc.

Although I'm aware of people who find it annoying I've never 'met' one outside a group that includes train/infrastructure enthusiasts.

Most people aren't actually annoyed about it (unless they come across some negative post or meme about it in which case suddenly it can be an issue when none existed before) and amazingly I'm not. It certainly doesn't make me feel any less (or more) safe, but it certainly doesn't bother me. But then I go to sporting fixtures where incident report systems (for louts or racism or whatever) are well established. Anywhere where speaking about a problem may bring that problem directly to you is suitable for a text based system. If you fear that you'll get caught up in stuff then you're likely to put up with it until the journey/match is finished.

There's been quite a push on 'upskirting' and other sexually oriented unwelcome behaviour on Northern, though I haven't seen it elsewhere (which doesn't mean it doesn't exist). This has been on information screens, but backed up by the 61016 service.

Annoying it may be, but how do any of us know how much it's used unless we are privy to the statistics? It's an odd point of view to have if you have no evidence and probably proves just how effective the system is if people aren't aware of it being used in the first place.

Sadly we live in a world where people are subject to attacks, prejudice and anti-social behaviour. Thinking that the 61016 service somehow makes people afraid when they get on a train is akin to not having drink drive campaigns or speed awareness warnings on the basis that drivers might think everyone is a drunken killer.

 

[FrontSideBus]

Regarding the nanny state, the constant announcements at stations telling us that due to todays wet weather, platforms may be slippery gets my goat

 

[CaptainHaddock]

Sadly we live in a world where people are subject to attacks, prejudice and anti-social behaviour.

We always have done! Attacks, prejudice and antisocial behaviour are no more common now than they were 20 or 30 years ago yet back then the idea you'd have to sit through five minutes of warnings and instructions every time your train called at a station would have been laughable. The 6016 number really isn't necessary now and probably never was.

 

[Krokodil]

The 6016 number really isn't necessary now and probably never was.

It's a very efficient way of triaging minor crimes on the railway