Their new building in Bradford was what Kings Security Systems invited guests to see; Mark Rowe reports on another sort of building – of a guarding side to the electronic security business.
Security officers at Kings have head-cams, PDAs, patrol vehicles with in-vehicle CCTV: but you come away from this Bradford building with a sense that one is necessary for the other; the technology and the people. So it was even when arriving at the place: the well-wrapped up and smiling security officer directed me from the sliding automatic entrance gates to the front door. Inside, the usual signing in at the desk, beside a large Christmas tree; and through the swipe-card turnstiles. Invited guests – from northern universities, Boots the Chemist, for example – saw the alarm receiving centre, enjoyed lunch and Starbucks coffee. Well, why not have a Starbucks in your hospitality area? As the coffee chain is among clients. (There’s also vending machines in the building. If you want to order your lunch at 9am, you go on the company intranet. Pay for it with your access card – again, if you are an electrical installer, why not have cashless vending yourself?!) As I sat on a new brown sofa and ate a prawn wrap and tried to keep Starbucks froth off my nose, while news and music played on large flat screens on the walls, it struck me that there’s something particular about Kings. "It’s all about planning for the future," the MD Anthony King said to me. <br><br>Kings is a family firm, with a family ethos, as Paul Stephenson, head of guarding services explained. The guarding side began in April 2007. Earlier, the company has been foremost an electronic security and fire installer. Paul was ten years in protection at the Leeds-based Royal Armouries; and has worked in the hotel, leisure and museum sectors. How did he go about his work at Kings? With quality management systems, he said. "I have done it that long, it’s become second nature, it comes naturally. A lot of the documents, for example the 7858 [Security screening of personnel employed in the security industry], the vetting is within the [British] standard. When it comes to 7499 [static guarding, mobile patrol and keyholding] you have to read the standard, and it tells you what you need to do." He gave the example of checking your patrol vehicle, every week: "So you produce a vehicle check – oil, water, tyres et cetera." Even if it sometimes may seem tedious, it’s for a purpose. And then there is an audit process. Paul works with the assessment body ISOQAR. Also: gaining NSI guarding gold – the company already had NACOSS gold as an electronic security installer. Paul described NSI gold as the ‘benchmark’, singling out the auditors for praise.<br><br>And then what? Get the basics right, obviously. "We knew the guarding division wasn’t going to flourish overnight. We want to provide a better service – I know it’s a cliché, everybody wants to. But we have the resources in place. We are in a position where we won’t take work on just for the turnover. We want to be sure we can walk before we can run, that’s why the quality management system is in place. Because it’s difficult to have a large influx of work, then implement the quality management system, because the damage is already done, you have no system in place to control your growth." <br><br>Paul talks then in terms of what you could call attention to detail. To break off a minute: it struck me that the weather as I walked from Bradford Interchange to Kings – only a couple of streets from the centre – could stand for the economy. The moors were white with overnight snow, and the pavements were treacherously frozen (though salted by my afternoon return to the station, when snowfall made it warmer). People slid and the only way to stay on your feet was to take it a step at a time, maybe look at some other method – such as, walk on the grass. So what is Kings’ equivalent to walking on the grass? <br><br>Choice of kit, for one thing. Their marked response vehicles, grey and red, are 4x4s rather than something like a Ford Fiesta. The thinking here, in a word; size is important. And as for new starters’ uniforms, Paul said: "We issue them with a full load. We know they are going to work four or five shifts a week; we issue them with enough uniform, five shirts, two trousers, even down to the steel toe-capped boots." Here Paul draws on his own experience. When he as a younger man in security was issued with two shirts, he felt he had to buy more, so as to wear fresh-washed and fresh-looking ones. Other people though might not think to. As Paul says, if a security officer is working as a concierge or front of house, it has to be the correct person for the site and sort of work – retail, for instance, is not a place for someone who cannot stand standing much of the day. Otherwise, the client and the contractor can look bad. <br><br>Readers may notice that we haven’t mentioned the approved contractor scheme, yet. Kings gained SIA approved contractor status (in guarding and key-holding) working through the NSI’s arm Insight Certification, and going the ‘fast track’ route rather than passporting. The point of ACS status? Well, insurers, maybe clients, are asking for it, else you don’t tender. And Professional Security has reported before on guarding buyers slimming the number of their guarding contractors. Bradford local authority is one example – going from about ten to one; Kings, in a £2m deal.<br><br>Paul has things to say on the training side – he sits on an expert panel for guarding for Skills for Security – but let’s go to a couple of pieces of technology, which enable a guard to do their job better, or faster. Head-cams: Paul gives the example of some Bradford leisure and sports centres. Officers will wear the Robocam and a flourescent armband (like the sort that many door staff wear their SIA badge in): saying, ‘Mobile CCTV in operation’ and the Robocam logo. Take it off, and there are calling cards to fill in and hand to people who ask for their footage (data protection! And if officers walk poolside, they turn off the camera). Patrols inside and outside are a visual deterrent, to youths hanging around for instance; and reassure staff and visitors: "Members of the public have actually come up to the guys saying they feel safer." <br><br>Response officers have a PDA. So if a key-holding response officer has a call from the alarm receiving centre (ARC), it’s not paperwork but on the mobile device – the door and alarm codes, where the light switches are. The officer once at the site accepts the job, goes through a check-list of what the customer requires, as far as if necessary 999 response. Once the alarm is resolved, the officer closes the job, signs it off, or the customer will on the officer’s PDA, and a report gets faxed or emailed to the customer, waiting for them in the morning. The officer may type a remark – ‘nothing untoward’ in the one I viewed – that may be something the customer can usefully redress. To do all this, Kings bought and adapted software. The company has also bought the Timegate rostering tool. <br><br>Paul Stephenson went through this with PDA in the ARC. Technical help and service staff are inside the control room too. Even allowing for the newness of the place, and indeed that the open day was known in advance, it was strikingly neat – none of the coffee cups (or marks made by coffee cups!) and papers that seem to breed on desks. Dark carpet, light-coloured walls, long desks; separate server room and offices off the main control room. Gary Dale, head of field services and control room, said: "I wanted it to be clinical. We wanted to create nice straight lines and keep it very much 21st century." When an operator goes home, their phone and PC stay on the desk, and put away their mouse and (Kings-logoed) mouse-mat away in a draw. <br><br>The building has a warehouse part for the ATM division – installing cashpoint whether for building societies, or for independents, in non-bank, non-traditional settings such as pubs. Kings began such work on the security side; now they will do all the work, from ordering the machine, to bespoke cabinets or anti-ram bollards, to repairs after an attack. <br><br>About Kings Security Systems’ new base<br><br>The company used its own tradesmen to fit out its new headquarters and operations centre in a former warehouse on Ripley Street. It brings together five former depots and three offices scattered around the city. Kings was started as a TV aerial installation business by Anthony’s father James, who is now company chairman. Anthony King said: “Like all 20-somethings I wanted to take on the world. With the confidence of youth I negotiated with National Tyres for a contract to cover 60 of their depots. I think they gave us the most remote sites as far away from Bradford as possible to test us out as we only had 12 engineers at the time. But we took the job on and that opened the door to other major contracts.” <br><br>A contract with Domino’s Pizzas followed and now King’s provides security for other high street names. Anthony King wants to double turnover over the next three to five years. Now employed are more than 200 people; around 110 at the new headquarters. It’s not quite finished; still to build – a gym. Mr King said: “Apart from being more efficient, being under one roof provides us with space for expansion. It also demonstrates the scale of operations, which was not so evident when we had premises all over the place."
