From the July 2002 print edition of Professional Security, some security management speakers at IFSEC.
Whether the police like it or not, the Government seems determined to bring in non-police patrollers, paid from the public purse, yet possibly members of the private security industry. Two speakers at IFSEC showed that such patrolling can work, and that the police may be happy to see them work.
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Neighbourhood wardens from contract guarding firms paid for by a local authority are there to support the police, not replace them, a manager in charge of a scheme in West Lancashire told IFSEC. Robbie Calder of Legion Security said that the patrollers drive and walk the streets and supervisers have weekly meetings with the local police intelligence officer. Mr Calder said: ‘The scheme is clearly supporting the community by its patrols and activities reducing the fear of crime. It is supporting the police in their crime prevention function as an intelligence source and by relieving them of having to react to mundane everyday problems, of a non-criminal nature, within the community. It is also very clear that the West Lancashire scheme does not in any way replace the police.’
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Suitable people
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He explained that the scheme’s partners – the district council, the police and the private security firm – thought a great deal about what sort of person was suitable for the job of warden, bearing in mind the three aims: crime prevnetion, environmental improvement, and community development. After advertising, 20 possibles were interviewed by two Legion managers, who re-interviewed some 12 candidates and selected two supervisers and six wardens for training. Mr Calder, who has a military background, said: ‘There is no clear template for an individual suitable for employment as a warden. Successful applicants were ex-armed forces, ex-Prison Service, and some without enforcement experience. However what they all did have in common was some experience in voluntary community-type work such as Samitarians, drug counselling and youth clubs – none of which had been in the person specificiation.’ Supervisers and wardens had three weeks of training, covering basic legal understanding including Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) awareness and the Human Rights Act; how to provide practical assistance to police; crime prevention, drug awareness and conflict resolution courses by Lancashire Police; housing, environmental health and community issues training, by the district council; and fire awareness by Lancashire Fire Brigade. Legion delivered security officer training, first aid, codes of practice and equipment familiarisation. During the three weeks, the trainees had orientation trips, including to ‘hot spots’, in the company of police, council staff and the fire brigade. Next the wardens had two weeks on the streets before they went live. <br>
Extra cash: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has announced an extra £22.5m for 300 more wardens in ten police areas across the country. Barbara Roche, Minister of State said: ‘Already, thousands of people are benefiting from having a uniformed warden on the streets where they live. Wardens are helping to reduce crime and the fear of crime in many neighbourhoods and town centres. They work as the eyes and ears of the community, helping the police to stamp out criminal behaviour.’ Regional crime directors working in the Goverment offices for the regions are to identify potential areas for wardens.
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Just as cash in transit, once carried out by the police, is seen as a private sector activity, so might alarm response. That was one of the prospects offered by a senior police speaker at IFSEC. Mark Rowe reports.
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If the private security industry is singing from the same songsheet as the police, private security can be in the wider police family. So says Richard Childs, Chief Constable of Lincolnshire. Historically, the private sector has been kept well out of the police family, he admitted, but what is the role of the police service’ He quoted the Home Office definition, that begins ‘to help secure a safe and just society’. He wants therefore to identify with anyone who can help in the fight against crime and disorder, and who signs up to the same values as the police – not necessarily the same standards. While he made it clear that his was not a representative police view – the Association of Chief Police Officers has a ‘holding position’ on the question of the wider police family, while the rank and file Police Federation feels threatened, Mr Childs said, by what he called the private security industry’s ‘flexibility’. ACPO at present restricts any extension of police powers to others, he said, and he queried whether the proposed community support officers (possibly contract private security officers, but only run with the backing of a police force, Home Secretary David Blunkett has agreed) would have powers of detention for 30 minutes, as the Police Reform Bill proposes. In a word, ACPO states that only the police should have the power to intervene in a situation without consent. But, Mr Childs admitted, police may have to be flexible on that position if in private prisons for example staff need to carry out searches. In an allusion to the burning down of Yarl’s Wood asylum seeker detention centre, which saw Group 4 arguing with the authorities over who should foot the bill for the damage, Mr Childs came down firmly on the side of any private firm carrying the proverbial can: ‘If you are going to start doing more things as an industry, you get the dosh for doing the job; you can have the accountability as well.’ He laid down other conditions for any private sector taking over of police functions: private security uniforms should look different to police’s; money should not be taken away from core policing – for instance, any funding for community support officers should be in addition to present funding. But Mr Childs had no difficulty in funding for CSOs coming from local authorities or the private sector. He defined such neighbourhood warden-type, visible policing as ‘softer and fluffier’ whereas ‘harder’ policing roles should stay with the police. What more can the private sector do’ Mr Childs asked. He mentioned that his Lincolnshire force is looking to go down the PFI (Private Finance Initiative) route for facilities management, to help police do their job. Private security could take on the management of firearms licences and fixed penalty tickets, he added. Also, he was in no doubt that in ten years alarm responses, abnormal loads on the roads and speed camera management would be in the private sector. He claimed that the alarm industry had brought such de-policing on itself, ‘because it [the industry] is so bad’. As for the police hiving off abnormal loads and speed cameras – but not the decisions on where cameras are sited – Mr Childs spoke of wanting to stop giving the public the impression that the police service is dominated by traffic policing.
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What is business continuity for’
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Trevor Partridge, head of business continuity at Marks & Spencer, told his audience at IFSEC 2002 squarely: stores must continue to trade profitably; and the City, shareholders, customers and staff must not lose confidence in M & S as a company during a major incident. What then are the commercial priorities’ Trevor listed some of them: distribute merchandise; pay suppliers, and staff; maintain financial control, and maintain what he called ‘a seamless service to our customers’. As for planning, he came up with an aide memoire – SUCCESS (Support from e top; Understanding the risks; Conditions outside your control; Communications; Easy working environment; Single plan response; and Series of tests and exercises). He defined a major incident as one where personnel have been injured or have died; property has been damaged and the occupancy is untenable; or business systems are non-operational. ‘A major incident when it happens has hte same effect as when an individual has been struck in the solar plexus,’ he said, offering the statistic that 80 per cent of businesses encountering a major incident, that did not have a plan, cease trading within 18 months of that incident. That for Trevor raised questions, such as: do employees, our most important resource, understand what to do when a major incident happens; and do they know what to expect before the incident’ He spoke of an incident having a history perhaps of three hours, starting as an ‘unusual occurrence’ and becoming ever more severe: a ‘manageable proble’, a crisis and then a ‘major incident’. While an organisation can never prevent the incident from happening, you can minimise the effects of an incident, and be effective for all situations based on a worse-case scenario. He offered an incident management structure where damage assessment (building, IT, voice communications, and property), business impact (logisitics, finance), facilities, human resources (such as responses to relatives,) and corporate communications report to operations management and a major incident management team.
