Now on desks is the July 2021 print edition of Professional Security magazine. As ever we bring news about the private security industry in the British Isles, and digest non-security news that has ramifications for the sector.
For instance, the recent report into the Martin Bashir affair at the BBC – whereby the Panorama reporter forged bank statements to win the confidence of Earl Spencer, the brother of Diana, Princess of Wales, and thereby gain a career-defining interview with Diana – shines incidental light on how not to carry out a workplace investigation. We devote several pages to how the incoming Joe Biden administration in the United States has sought to tackle cyber security, both for the federal government’s own security and for the US’ critical national infrastructure – which as well applies to the UK. July 2 is the deadline for responding to the Home Office consultation on the proposed Protect Duty, that would place a legal responsibility on site and land owners for the security of people, arising from the Manchester Arena suicide terror attack of May 2017; and meanwhile, the Inquiry into the attack has brought out its first report of three, specifically about the Arena’s security. The report addresses the Protect Duty, while querying how workable it could be in practice.
The magazine has long tried to cover all sides of security – physical, guarding, electronic and cyber. In organisational terms for a corporate, that means a chief security officer (CSO) and a chief information security officer (CISO). We hear views on which should do what, and how you should go about either job.
As all that suggests, even during the covid public health crisis, much else has been going on. Quite apart from the danger to life and health, covid has also delayed much in public affairs, including the Protect Duty consultation and the progress of the Arena Inquiry; and the ECHO project, for the automation of intruder alarm calls passed by alarm receiving centres to police despatchers. ARCs were due to get briefed just as covid came in spring 2020; while ECHO was supposed to happen by now, electronic call handling is coming in. We bring an update from ECHO organisers.
A topic we will return to in the next couple of editions is public space CCTV – here we feature a Kent council that has put off a proposed cut of its CCTV monitoring – but while welcome, was that change of decision for the right reasons? we ask.
We also seek to bring the widest spectrum of what it means to do security, and bring you word from a Chartered Security Professional assessor about the CSyP status; Daren Blackwell, Yodel’s director of security (pictured is a Yodel delivery van in Truro city centre); and a close protection man about the reality of guarding a high net worth individual abroad. A guarding contract company MD gives a view about what security should surround social media use.
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