A conference on combating attacks on vehicles engaged in the transit of cash and valuables is running in Canary Wharf, London on January 27, and 28.
The conference will hear contributions from senior security industry managers, senior police officers, a government ministers from the Home Office and senior officers from GMB. The conference will examine recent trends in attacks on vehicles engaged in the transit of cash and valuables and will look at regional variations in these trends. In particular it will look at what steps need to be taken to combat any step up in attacks due to the credit crunch. There will also be reports on all aspects of what it termed the ‘360 degree solution’ that GMB seek to stop its members working in the security industry being injured and killed at work during these attacks.
Jude Brimble, GMB National Officer responsible for GMB members who work in the security industry will tell the conference: "GMB welcomes this conference as a step up in the co-operation between all the agencies in tackling these horrendous attacks. We all need to do a lot more to stop GMB members who work in the security industry being injured and killed at work during these attacks. GMB will be pressing our agenda on all the other parties.
"GMB’s starting point is that it will not be possible to eliminate the desire on the part of criminals to get their hands on the cash being transported by GMB members. GMB have to put in place a system that makes it all but impossible for them to do so and to get away with it. That means a 360 degree solution.
"Where possible we need to engineer the cash in transit system so that there are no opportunities for criminals to get near the cash. Where this is not possible, we need to make it as difficult as possible to carry out attacks, and where attacks are carried out we need to ensure that there is 100 per cent chance of the criminals being identified and caught. When they come before the courts they need to be sentenced robustly for their crime and this will act as a strong deterrent against cash-in-transit attacks which should be seen as a crime against the person not a business crime."
Local authorities need to make real changes on the issues of access and planning, as Professional Security reported in an interview with G4S last year. They, councils, need to stop issuing parking tickets to cash-in-transit vehicles and instead offer parking exemptions, enabling cash-in-transit couriers to park closer to their delivery point and therefore, allowing them to be at risk for a shorter time as they cross the pavement. He aded: "This will allow couriers to do their jobs more safely and to get on with providing a valuable public service."
For more information on the BSIA/GMB campaign to reduce cash-in-transit crime, visit www.bsia.co.uk/citcrime
A Charter to tackle cash-in-transit robbery was signed at the Home Office on May 11, 2007 which led to a Cash-in-Transit Action Plan being published in June. It bound together for the first time all the key stakeholders into a framework for action which is now starting to deliver results, it is claimed.
