On frames above the pitch at Twickenham Stadium in west London as usual yesterday, the lamps were heating the grass to make it grow. Something similar was happening inside the home of English rugby as the final Security TWENTY show of the year sought to grow the private security industry, in terms of knowledge and business. For while a conference ran from 10am to 1pm, the exhibition of some 70 security companies and organisations was open to installers, end users, consultants and specifiers and anyone interested in the private security sector.
For some photos of the event, visit the gallery part of the magazine website.
At the conference, chaired as ably as ever by regular Mike White, the former senior counter-terror cop now a consultant and media commentator Chris Phillips described the counter-terror threat in the light of the explosion outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital on Sunday, November 14, and the authorities’ raising of the UK terror threat level from substantial to severe. Chris opened his talk with the comment that counter-terror security ‘is just good security’ and there’s lots that you can do about the terrorist threat – ‘which isn’t going away’.
He went on to discuss the likely Protect Duty, mooted by the Home Office and arising from the Manchester Arena Inquiry. There’s no excuse, he said, around training, for the official ACT online training is free. We shouldn’t be waiting for legislation to protect our businesses and people, he said. As for how security people can make difference by preparing themselves and their workplaces, Chris closed with the example of Rick Rescorla, the security manager who saved countless lives on 9-11 by having beforehand organised Morgan Stanley workers at the World Trade Center to practise building evacuation.
Guy Collyer of Police Crime Prevention Initiatives (Police CPI) spoke to the provocative title of ‘why training is a waste of time’. By that he meant to contrast training with assessed and tutored qualifications, whether online or face to face or ‘blended’ (a mix of the two, in training jargon). While Police CPI – the non-profit company behind such schemes as Secured by Design and most recently Licensing SAVI – may be best known for its crime prevention courses, Guy described courses in site security awareness, diversity and inclusion, and mental health first aid awareness; and coming soon is a course on violence against women and girls (VAWG), aimed at ‘safer streets’, and the night-time economy.
One of the wittier and more assured public speakers around is Simon Banks – founder of the alarm signalling product company CSL; director of the National Security Inspectorate (NSI) and the fire industry body BAFE; and chairman of the British Security Industry Association (BSIA). He was on good form and offered five things to take on board for the next five years: namely cyber-security (he argued that security firms should at least get the basics done, as through the Cyber Essentials certification scheme); skills (a theme of Simon’s, as he has for years campaigned for more security engineering apprentices); BT’s move to All-IP and switching off the analogue PSTN lines – due to be complete by 2025, but such is the sheer amount of work and exchanges to be shut down, you will or should soon be affected; the switch off of 2G and 3G; and the ECHO project, whereby electronic call handling replaces human reporting of an alarm between ARC (alarm receiving centre) and police dispatcher.
ECHO was covered by NSI chief executive Richard Jenkins at ST20 Birmingham, the last ST event before covid struck; like so much else the roll-out of ECHO has been put back due to the pandemic, and so far the Met and Essex Police forces have gone over to ECHO; expect other forces to follow. Simon estimated the change-over nationwide to ECHO by 2023.
The conference also heard product and tech updates from Hikvision, BT Surveillance, and Seagate.
The evening before ST as ever, an informal dinner ran and raised – when added to donations on the ST day proper – £2614.22 for the Royal British Legion. Mick Mills and Andy Cassidy were at the event representing RBL.
The usual Heathrow hotel venue was not possible due to hotels until recently being used for quarantine of visitors from overseas; but this time next year ST22 is due to close at the Radisson Red Hotel, Heathrow on November 3.
While the covid pandemic interrupted the ST schedule in 2020 and meant it didn’t start in 2021 until the summer, let’s hope that the 2022 roll-call is as planned – starting as from the first year in 2013, at Birmingham; to be precise, on February 17, at the Hilton Metropole Hotel, on the NEC campus outside Birmingham – not to be confused with the Hilton in the city centre. For the full list of dates and places, visit the Security TWENTY part of the Professional Security website.
