From the July print edition of Professional Security.
A result of Security Industry Authority licences may be more guards in patrol vehicles and fewer static guards. So we reported last issue. With that as the background, what sort of mobile service might guard firms offer? Mark Rowe talks to a Midlands guarding company using technology to bring accountability.
If SIA licences mean fewer, badged security officers, might that mean static guards at gatehouses replaced by guards patrolling in vans? For Gary Lichfield, operations manager at Firewalker Security, it’s above all a case of ‘watch this space’. He says: “A lot of people are watching the industry, to see which way it goes. I think everybody is watching for the big players, to see what is going to happen with charge rates.” Costs, not least with training, will go up. Some clients may look to finish with static guards, and go to mobile ones, solely because of costs, he adds. All that said, he sees licences as a good move, because security people will be recognised as professional. In human terms, the hope is that when someone asks what you do for a living, on holiday or at the pub, and you say ‘security officer’, no longer will you be seen as something lowly. Gary does report a good response to SIA licensing from local Jobcentres, directing job-seekers towards security training and jobs.
What then of mobile patrols? Last issue we reported how a recent Reliance Security seminar heard BSIA chief executive David Dickinson suggest more liveried response vehicles – with a knock-on benefit of deterring criminals generally. But what about a customer paying for a contract patrol making periodic site checks (at staggered times so that watching criminals cannot be sure that they can break in, in between visits)? Staffordshire-based Firewalker now uses a Competitive Tracking product, that satellite-tracks its patrol vehicles. Gary says that previously the firm relied on the patrol officer recording details of a shift in a log-book. Gary says: “But it was never any real evidence for the client that the mobile driver or the superviser had actually visited the site.” With the software on the manager’s lap-top, you have proof of when the vehicle’s ignition was switched on and off; where the vehicle was every ten minutes (say); and when the vehicle entered a site, that the manager has drawn as a box on a road-map on his computer. The box can be the sites – warehouses, retail parks, whatever – the mobile patroller visits in the night. Tim Birkinshaw of Competitive Tracking is the Midlands dealer for the Navman wireless fleet management tracking product; Firewalker is the first security company taker of the product. With a couple of computer clicks Gary can interrogate the software to see, for example, where the patrol vehicles are at any moment; he can replay a day, to show a ‘snail’s trail’ of the vehicles’ progress. Yes, there are guard patrol products on the market, but Gary adds that an officer may forget to ‘zap’ the reporting point at a site. With the tracking product, the whereabouts of the vehicles – manned after all by lone workers – is known even if the officer does not call into the control room. A manager can produce reports, on everything from when a vehicle was on site – to demonstrate that the guard firm is meeting the contract – to the speed of vehicles. The system can resolve disputes – there is no denying the data if a driver has been caught by a speed-camera. Or say a client rings with a complaint that a gate was left open one evening. If the guard firm can show that the patrol guard did come on site at 6.15pm, then maybe the contract guard is no longer the scapegoat … perhaps in fact a tenant left the gate open.
The guard company can print out reports of their service to a client, and send them with the invoice. If clients want, they can be given a password to enter the system and view their site details. For Firewalker Managing Director Bob Nolan, in a word the product brings accountability. He agrees that licences are excellent – provided there is a level playing field. But he adds that what clients want is continuity of staff; and staff of a good calibre (they trust the guard firm not to send a murderer to their site). And, the client wants to get hold of a manager if there is a gripe. If a customer does not know who to ring, or does not get a ’phone call returned … that way, business is lost. In particular, Bob adds, clients like to see that the contract security officer is getting visits from supervisers, especially out of hours. The tracking software can identify supervisers’ vehicles so that Firewalker can point to when officers had a visit from a superviser.
