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Police in Sheffield have begun Project Servator – a policing tactic used to disrupt a range of criminality, including terrorism.
The tactic, dating from 2014 and worked out by the City of London Police, comes in the city after a trial by South Yorkshire Police in the city centre since mid-July 2024. Project Servator is already in use in various parts of the UK, including across the whole of London, as featured in the May 2018 edition of Professional Security Magazine.
Recap
Project Servator, to recap, sees the deployment of unpredictable – whether highly visible or plain-clothed police officers, supported by other resources, whether dogs, horses, firearms officers, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) and live-monitored CCTV. Servator is also about the training of police to spot the tell-tale behavioural signs that someone may be planning or preparing to commit a crime.
The aim: to disrupt hostile reconnaissance – the information-gathering and planning that criminals need to do; notably terrorists intending to carry out an outrage, but also pick-pockets.
In the trial and since, South Yorkshire Police has worked with partners to carry out deployments across Sheffield city centre including busy areas such as The Moor, Peace Gardens, Barkers Pool, Fargate and Sheffield railway station. Police reported in November that some 230 businesses have been engaged, and around 660 members of the public spoken to about Servator and the ways the public can help – another strand of the project, to reassure the law-abiding public.
The formal launch of Servator in the city centre came with Sheffield Christmas Markets. More in the February edition of Professional Security Magazine.
Darren Hendleman-Horne from Sheffield BID (business improvement district) said: “Sheffield city centre prides itself on being a safe city centre not only for visitors and customers but for all the businesses and their staff. Project Servator increases confidence around safety in our city centre and reinforces the needs for business staff to be vigilant and to report anything untoward. Project Servator is an excellent platform to support further training initiatives for businesses and ultimately to support the progression of the Protect Duty,” better known as Martyn’s Law.
For more on Servator, visit the Counter Terrorism Police website.
Phoot by Mark Rowe: Bollards outside Sheffield Town Hall, winter morning.
