UK union GMB held a two day conference in Nottingham of 80 security workers.
They discussed what the trade union calls the scandalously high level of attacks against security workers delivering Britainโs cash and valuables.<br><br>These workers are responsible for ensuring that there is sufficient cash in society to keep the economy moving. The GMB Security Workers Conference was on Thursday and Friday, April 17 and 18, at the Britannia Hotel, Nottingham. Nottingham MP and Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker addressed the conference on the Friday. He chairs regular meetings with these groups, seeking to reduce CVIT (Cash and Valuables in Transit) attacks. However despite a much-trumpeted charter signed by these bodies last summer, reported attacks are if anything higher. There were 1059 attacks in 2007; the 2006 total was 1033; 836 attacks in 2005; 763 in 2004, and 697 attacks in 2003. <br><br>GMB adds that it has been working with the British Security Industry Association (BSIA), the Home Office and Police around the UK, trying to reduce the worst attack record in Europe. Earlier this year GMB and BSIA asked other EU countries for help and advice on guidance on how to reduce to number of attacks to the level of other EU countries as 76pc of Cash & Valuables in Transit (CVIT) attacks recorded in the EU occur in the UK.<br><br>Unions says<br><br>Gary Smith, GMB National Secretary said: โNo matter what, the levels generally are too high and in London efforts need to be redoubled. Figures released by the British Security Industry Association earlier this year show a 28 per cent drop in cash-in-transit attacks since the implementation of a proactive partnership initiative between the police, GMB trade union, and the banking, retail and security industries, which has been strongly supported by Government ministers.โ<br>The CIT staff came from contract firms Loomis, G4S and Staffordshire-based Security Plus. Other speakers were Dick Hanks, BSIA Police Liaison Manager; and from the Metropolitan Police Flying Squad. Speaking after the event to Professional Security, Gary Smith said that Vernon Coaker’s message was that it was an important and significant issue. Mr Smith said: "Everyone went away with some degree of confidence that attacks will remain a priority," for the Home Office.<br><br>Background<br><br>This is not a new problem. Our columnist Ken Rogers interviewed on the BBC Radio 4 PM programme in 2001 pointed to availability to criminals of firearms and the rising number of cash machines. Security measures inside banks and other commercial premises have made robbing such machines – or the people replenishing them – an easier or โsofterโ target in criminalsโ eyes. A gang of youths may surround a guard leaving a van to drop off or collect money from a bank or supermarket. As a grim example of the violence associated with attacks on CIT couriers: criminals responded to cash boxes chained to guards’ wrists by trying to cut off hands. As the regional statistical break-down of the overall CIT attack figures suggest, and as Gary Smith hinted, much of the crime is concentrated in a few cities, such as Manchester and notably London. Unions and others have identified the way that police record such crimes as important – whether it is regarded as a business crime, or swallowed up in assaults against the person. However, as reported in the March issue of Professional Security, ACPO representative Peter Davies of Lincolnshire Police ruled out any definitions of crime against a business, and implied that businesses have to like or lump what policing they get. The issue is also linked to more general violence used in commercial robberies, such as against betting shops and jewellers. In the capital, carriage and use of discharge of firearms has become socially and culturally acceptable in many communities within London, to quote the Met Police. Last year three men were jailed for a CIT robbery in Enfield; the Met reported the men used high-powered stolen vehicles to commit offences – two robberies a day.
