Ram raids may not look sophisticated, but they can damage a warehouse or retail premises all the same. A company with an anti-ram-raid gate talks about their product.
David Alexander of Eruma plc suggested that the recession fuelled crimes such as ram raids: “Some people’s response to hardship is to increase the level of crime that they are involved in. I think that ram-raids are quite a crude form of attack, because they can be opportunist; but I would suggest they are becoming increasingly planned. One client has had the same premises hit multiple times.” That unnamed client has decided, recession or no recession, to install the anti-ram-raid product, feeling that ‘enough is enough’. David Alexander adds: “You think about a pallet of mobile phones or MP3 players: easily sellable, portable devices, high net worth, very easy to resell and they can be removed in volume very quickly. Scrap metal, copper in particular, is being targeted. It’s anything where there is a product that is high value, easy to sell, being targeted.” <br><br>The gates sit behind the roller shutters at a doorway. That is, the product is added out of sight when the shutters are down, out of hours. While a user could put up a poster saying the product is fitted, to deter ram raiders, David Alexander reports few clients do so. Rather, users are saying they want the ram-raiders to drive into the roller shutters, and not get through. Why? David reports talking with scene of crime police officers who say ram-raids are done with ‘local intelligence’, presumably an insider who says which loads are available for theft and when. The ram-raiders, then, will probably know beforehand that there is the anti-ram-raid gate installed. David also mentions a ‘famous artist’ who had the gates recently installed who did not want that fact publicised; ‘even though they have been hit recently; but the insurance company was actively involved in recommending it, because they are giving a reduction on their premium, or keeping it flat.” While there might be something to be said for a warning poster telling criminals in effect to try their luck elsewhere, David reports customers are choosing not to publicise this security measure, even though an unsuccessful ram-raid will still leave damage to the roller shutters. He adds: “The important thing is that the ram-raid gate is relatively low cost compared with the theft of the stock in the building; and the facility will still be working, because it will still be possible for a shutter to be opened and you have the ram-raid gate barrier behind it.” <br><br>The anti-ram-raid gate does not take up warehouse space; ‘it doesn’t require any special handling to open or close it; it can be opened by a single operator in a matter of moments’. The product prevents, it’s claimed, a raider trying to cut through with an angle grinder. ‘The other technique that some ram-raiders use is jacking up shutters – they get a fork lift truck. Our product cannot be jacked up.” Nor, he adds, does the product disrupt a premises during installation; an install can take a day.” <br><br>Another side to the company is window security blinds, for counter-terror purposes, growing rapidly, he adds; most work here is in the trouble-spots of the world, though the specifier may be in the UK. He says: “There is a budget for counter-terrorism out there; and what’s driving that is a legal obligation, a duty of care to protect people; the second part is the need to maintain and protect critical infrastructure, so it’s operational; because it’s those disruptions to people’s lives or critical infrastructure that really destablises a city or a country.” He feels besides there’s a genuine feeling that while the world is not necessarily becoming more dangerous, nor is it becoming any safer.” So it’s not only defence establishments seeking high-rated products like blinds, but, for example, directors of banks, ‘and anyone that might be subject to kidnap attacks or bomb blasts; and if you think about anywhere in the world where there’s trouble right now, people are trying to find counter-terrorism solutions’. <br><br>A third side to the company is Illuminex, lighting for emergency and security purposes. He acknowledges that much has already been invested in such lighting, and CCTV: “And unfortunately security lighting takes up a vast amount of energy.” His company’s lighting products, he claims, save from a third to 50 per cent on energy. “The CCTV return on investment, if anyone does a calculation, is going to come out very bad, because at best what it wil do is record faithfully the crime being committed. It may act as a degree of deterrent, but it isn’t stopping anything happening. And the CCTV camera is high energy as well. There’s a big push towards infra-red [lighting] technology to keep the energy bill down.”
