Tacklers of business crime have to overcome business complacency and a culture of silence, says a senior police officer.
Tacklers of business crime have to overcome business complacency and a culture of silence, says a senior police officer in charge of a Reading-based business crime initiative. Det Chief Insp Barry Keane heads Thames Valley Business Crime Centre, that works with the private sector thanks to sponsorship. It includes a wide-ranging website (www.businesscrime.co.uk) with statistics that suggest around 30 per cent of all crime recorded by police is business-related. However, Barry Keane makes the point that under current Home Office measurements of police performance, a theft of computer hardware costing a business thousands rates as important statistically as a theft from a garden shed. He is not suggesting that police do not act on business crime – they do – but points out that police area commanders have finite resources. The idea persists that business crime is victimless, and covered by insurance. That said, business managers do have to face up to crime. There is the cost of replacing lost property, and the ‘opportunity cost’ of lost time, and disruption, Barry Keane adds. ‘Police do take a lot of time on the surveys of business premises, and go back 12 months later and find none of the recommendations we ask for have been implemented, primarily because in most companies, and particularly SMEs [small and medium enterprises] nobody ‘owns’ crime. So you might get a police officer who goes to deal with a business crime and has to deal with the receptionist.’ When asked, he seconds University of Reading head of security Alan Millership’s views on the difficulty of recruiting security staff in Reading. As an example of police-private security co-operation, Barry Keane praises Business Watch in Slough where Reliance Security guards attend business premises as a first line of policing
TVBCC aimed at first to raising the agenda of business crime, and set up links with chambers of commerce and other business groups; the TVBCC website, for example, depends on a website design company’s support. The website broadcasts details of crime trends. Mailshots have warned about e-crime and laptop thefts (running at more than 7,000 a year in Thames Valley); sponsors there have included Webdetect, Unisys and Chirson. A recent seminar at Bracknell with Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce was over-subscribed; some 200 people heard speakers Sir Charles Pollard, Thames Valley Chief Constable, and High Marriage, Guildford-based Home Office Crime Reduction Director for the South East. Those 200 were security, facility and general managers, Barry Keane says. ‘Companies put a lot of time and effort into formulating business plans and what I would like to see them do is actually incorporate, into that business plan, crime reduction issues, and that somebody within a company accepts responsibility for it, at a management level, where decisions get made and resources allocated.’ As for what he calls a ‘culture of silence’, Barry Keane puts it down partly to firms being unsure of the human rights and data protection laws; partly internal crime goes unreported because the parties come to an arrangement where somebody leaves the company; but mainly it’s out of ignorance.
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Chirson offer a PC immobiliser, tamper-evident label (that offers a reward for the laptop’s return) and database registration. You attach a uniquely numbered iButton – your ‘key’, small enough to wear on your key ring – to the PC. Remove the key from the interface port, a screen saver appears and access to your PC is denied. For access, replace the iButton. Sue Johnson of Chirson, based in Ulverston, Cumbria, adds: ‘The product offers protection in office environments to allow user to unplug the iButton to stop other employees accessing sensitive/confidential data while user at a meeting, lunch, etc. This is very important for directors and managers who may hold employee data or company plans. accounts, etc which they do not want in ‘public’ domain. The product will also help comply with the Data Protection Act where you are supposed to take some effort to protect confidential client data.’
