From the Professional Security Magazine editorial of November 2008.
Mick Neville is one of those people who, earlier in the year, was, for the security industry, the most famous man in the country for 24 hours. He was on all the news, for what he said about CCTV. The main media’s message, you may recall, was that CCTV is no good. But when you hear the man, it’s quite the reverse. Indeed he makes speeches to make the case for more staff – he leads the Met Police unit that handles video and other images – to better use the ‘excellent’ images given to police. He makes a powerful case that police use CCTV badly or not at all (from page 51). I’d only add one thing: politics. Conservatives then Labour put hundreds of millions into public space CCTV kit, then never thought to pay a pittance (by comparison) on standards, operator and police training, you know, the things to put the kit to best use. It must be that the politicians were content to spend (our) money so they could say that they were doing something about street crime. That is not the same as truly tackling the problem. The public space CCTV story so far does not reflect well on our democracy.
On a drizzly day in Dudley the 2012 Olympics – the 2012 anything – felt a long way off. But at the Reliance Security seminar – they are always worth going to – the guarding firm’s Olympics man Fraser Halliday set out why the company plans to look after its customers rather than chase business for the six weeks or so of the Olympics summer. Clearly the top bods at Reliance have decided that gripes from any short-changed regular customers would outweigh any gains from short-term pure Olympic clients. That’s not to say Reliance are turning their backs on the Games. Their point (from page 24): wherever you are in the UK, the London Olympics will affect you. So plan. I’m not saying any guarding contractor’s approach is better than another, but it was interesting to contrast Reliance with G4S, who have embraced the Games and have an Olympic Park contract. Again, clearly some very senior people at G4S have decided to go Olympic, and again, you can see the sense in that. It’s good PR, G4S is a global brand, and there is a fit with the London big event work the company does already. To repeat, anyone with a guardforce will have to work out where they stand. What if for instance your best staff decide to take midsummer 2012 off to volunteer as a Games meeter and greeter? Should you?!
Talking of G4S, I was on holiday in Villach in southern Austria when I noticed a couple of their uniformed guards. They were wearing blue berets. I only tell you because it could catch on. Au revoir mes amis!
