As someone who spent a decade working adjacent to the BTP and worked with one of their former officers I would suggest, depending on the region and your goals, it may not be the force for you. More than a few times I was stitched up by BTP officers who wanted to avoid some paper work only for things to escalate down the line (literally) but there seemed to be a culture of 'once we get them off our station they aren't our problem, regardless of what happens'. I have reported fare dodgers, sexual harassment, serious assualt and racial abuse to BTP officers during my career, face to face within yards of the perpetrators and had no action taken.
A colleague of mine even once requested BTP assistance to deal with an abusive fare dodger prior to departing a major UK railway station: the attending officer bought the fare dodger's ticket to get rid of him!
The former officer I know said he quit after deciding he was fed up with the amount of chancers getting a pass. He decided to spend the week not giving anyone who was acting anti socially, fare dodging, drug taking etc at his station a pass, and at the end of the week he was dragged in by his sergeant and berated for inflating the crime figures.
Not to put you off but give you a little more insight into the BTP and why you may prefer to choose a different force.
I thought they didn’t disclose why you failed to get into the police?
