Security officers at a London university are patrolling by £440 mountain bike – but they’re not allowed to just get on and pedal. Mark Rowe puts on a helmet and high-vis vest and goes out into E1 on two wheels.
At the traffic lights Paul Markham-James, Security Supervisor at Queen Mary, University of London (QMUL), held out his left hand, and turned left into Mile End Road. I did the same and the two security officers behind me did so too. After our good hour’s cycling training, we were riding down the middle of the bus lane, doing as Paul was doing. A passer-by walked in front of me without eye contact, so I had to watch for both of us. Paul turned into QMUL and stopped and the instruction was over. I got my Bikeability level one badge – because that is the name these days for cycling proficiency. (Visit www.bikeability.org.uk)
Organisers describe level one as ‘your cycling ABC’. I learned how to look over your cycle before you get on; how to mount; swerve round objects; looking over my shoulder (or both shoulders) before indicating to turn; and riding on some quiet roads around the east London uni. There, alongside some learner car drivers, we went through how to turn out of a junction. You could say that if you are at all a regular cyclist, you know this stuff already. The teaching is nationally aimed at children, but as it seeks to make you a better, safer cyclist, any cyclist can benefit – such as security and police officers riding as part of work (or indeed riding to and from work).
Professional Security magazine was first invited to QMUL last summer, shown around among other things the skeleton of the Elephant Man. Since then the security department – a team of 56.5 officers – has become part of ‘student and campus services’ at the uni. That’s a change from the normal uni set-up of security coming under estates, the same as gardening and facilities management. ‘Student services’ is more about counselling and careers, welfare, rather than maintaining buildings. There are key performance indicators (KPIs) to meet, such as response times. At the main, Mile End, campus, where the main security and CCTV control room is, it can be a 10 to 15 minute response time on foot from east to west. Walking around, the visitor can feel it’s a warren – not an East End that the Elephant Man would have known, quite the opposite; there are buildings under scaffolding, delivery vans, courtyards, trees, a campus that has grown over decades and like other universities still is growing. Paul Markham-James over coffee in the common room (more grand than your average staff canteen – posh chairs, newspapers, proper cups with saucers) went through the reason for buying the two (so far) bicycles. They cost £440, from Smith & Wesson, who provide cycles to the police – and yes, it’s the handgun company. Rather than re-invent the wheel (so to speak), QMUL drew on its local police station whose police do use such bikes.
Paul, given the task, next asked the insurers: not a problem, they answered, as long as the department does things with due care. In other words, give staff the correct protective equipment, training, and service of the machines. QMUL did not opt for your standard high street cycle because, for one thing, the bikes need to be highly adjustable to cater for officers of all heights. Supervisers Paul Markham-James and Darrell Hodder went through Bikeability’s training so that they qualified as trainers. The course is not just for security staff but anyone at QMUL, who may want cycling lessons before they brave London traffic. QMUl like others is championing cycling to work.
QMUL described their scheme to a recent regional meeting of the Association of University Chief Security Officers (www.aucso.org.uk). Bob Hunt, QMUL head of security, is AUCSO’s London regional rep. Bob said: "For me, the biggest point is the profile … a wow factor. I am not sure foot patrol is a thing of the past; it’s just as essential as bike patrol; it [cycling] just looks better." By that he meant: it’s one thing for uniformed officers to do foot patrols, but on bicycles they look more noticeable. Besides, operationally it can make sense. Many students and staff already cycle – and indeed on my way to the control room, though the (pedestrianised) campus had an end of term feel, a cyclist passed me. A security officer on a bike is more approachable than in a van – as the police are finding, in this era of neighbourhood policing. And it can keep criminals on the back foot. If a would-be offender watches a pair of security officers pass on foot, he can guess that the patrol will not be back that way for a couple of hours. On a bike, the patrollers may return several times. That’s not to say that vans are on the way out – as in the case of responding to incidents at student residences, it’s all about getting from A to B quickest (without endangering yourself or other road users). To reach QMUL’s other campuses, a vehicle is still required.
AUCSO members asked, how did staff take to the cycles? Most, especially the younger ones, were up for it. That said, some could not ride a bike without wobbling. Hence the training. At the other extreme, some like Paul Markham-James have taken up their workplace’s cycling to work offer and bought a bike. On July 19 the department is doing a London to Southend ride of 59 miles in aid of the Richard House children’s hospice – visit http://www.justgiving.com/qmulsecurity
Paul went into some of the advantages of a cycle-patrolling officer (applying also to a police officer or paramedic on a bicycle). You can stow more kit on the bike than you can carry on foot – such as barrier tape; and first aid materials that otherwise an officer might have to radio back to the control room for. "And if you need to secure an area, you can place a bicycle across a door or alleyway: and instantly sanitise the area." And an officer on a cycle is an extra two or three feet high, and able to see over walls more than the person on foot.
More generally the department is working with A2Z Training, seeking to put every security officer through NVQ level one; and then to give staff that option to progress to superviser, and shift leader. As for the recent hoo-ha over the Security Industry Authority deciding against licensing in-house security officers like contract guards – and opponents to the SIA claiming that managers may take guard forces in-house, to lower standards – though QMUL’s officers are in-house, they are SIA-badged. It’s only cost the university the licence application fee as the trainers are in-house. QMUL see the SIA licence as a benchmark, albeit it as a basic one, and argue that it pays to – in terms of morale and lower sickness rates for instance.
What did I learn? Paul taught that generally on a road with parked cars you should ride further in the middle of the road than I would – the teaching being, you allow for someone opening a car door or driving off without bothering to look. So in a word, he teaches a cyclist to be more assertive than I would be. Also, the habits of other road users – walkers and drivers – can be bad. More subtle was the sense that by being outdoors, under instruction, wearing the high-vis vest with the QMUL logo, you are being invested in, worthy of instruction. And there is something about cycling that people relate to. On the street a passing Cockney lady and Paul struck up a conversation. I came away with a bright badge; and a better road user.
