A Merseyside pilot scheme giving security advice to businesses could be repeated nationwide, says an organiser.
A Merseyside pilot scheme giving security advice to businesses could be repeated nationwide, says an organiser. Business Crime Direct General Manager David Fielding told Professional Security that the Home Office-funded service had run extremely well since its April launch. He said: ?It?s really taken off. Its sole purpose is to give crime prevention advice, with a commercial solution, to businesses, particularly the small and medium businesses of this world. I have a team of ex-police officers, very experienced in crime prevention. We set up an 0800 call centre where people can ask for advice or request the services of an advice officer. We have a data sharing agreement with Merseyside Police so on a daily basis we get access to the recent victims of crime. We make an appointment and give advice.? Whereas the police are not allowed to recommend an equipment supplier or make, BCD arrange three quotations. Some 350 firms have been ?target-hardened?. The agreement with police includes the force helicopter overflying crime-hit industrial estates on its return from ?shouts – with some success, David Fielding said. Such a scheme frees uniformed officers to do other work, he added. He said that on Merseyside some 23.7 per cent of business premises reported a burglary at least once in a year compared to 3.4 per cent of residential property. ?There is also a hard core of business properties that are burgled over and over again. Unfortunately some crime is disproportionate, and the business community is hit harder than others.? BCD has had reports of business people sleeping in their premises to guard against burglars, or taking stock home each night. Thanks to BCD, traders in the Chinatown area of Liverpool have banded togetherfor an 11-camera CCTV system and on-site monitoring station with radio links. David Fielding said the system, running from October, cut crime dramatically at once. The system installers were threatened by local youths, some of whom see cars of restaurant-goers as their ?moneybox?, he added. Alan Boyd, security advice officer with BCD (part of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce) brought together some 14 businesses, mainly restaurants. BCD and the Home Office contributed to the system. Billy Huy of the Liverpool Chinatown Business Association, says: ?Despite being the oldest Chinatown in the UK, established during the port?s long history of trade links with the Far East, Nelson Street?s modern day businesses have sadly needed to seek increased protection in the past year. There has been a series of problems encountered by our restaurants, as well as car thefts and simple acts of vandalism. But from consulting with our local police crime prevention officers, we found were able to apply for help in having a CCTV network installed for the area.? The Chinatown tender was won by Liverpool CCTV and access control installer Seceuro. The system chosen needed to be reliable within a clearly defined budget. Monochrome Vantage cameras and multiplexers plus a Sony VCR were supplied by Gardiner Security. Brian Jamieson, one of two directors at 60-strong Seceuro, says: ?Compared with many of our installations, it is far from our largest, but we are naturally very pleased to have been chosen for such a high-profile project.?
