The man in charge of security and investigations at the BBC was among the speakers at a London conference on corporate security. Mark Rowe tuned in.
At the reception of Broadcasting House in London W1, behind the discreet access control poles that you have to pass to reach the lifts, stand security officers. They wear dark-coloured double-breasted blazers, white shirts, red ties, and display their identity cards prominently. Security at this flagship BBC building is discreet, then, but unmistakably you are not going to get beyond reception without authorisation.
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Eddie Halling, Head of Investigation and Security Services at the BBC, based in west London, says: ‘We have reported to us 180 incidents a month of crimes committed against the BBC, and that is increasing.’ Such rising crime might be because more people are reporting to the security section; Eddie adds that although the security services have been in place for several years, many staff and contractors are not aware of them. Of those 180 cases, he reports that 70 are to do with harassment or stalking against staff. The department deals with bomb threats, and since September 11 has had a number of anthrax threats, which have the potential to shut premises. Bush House in the capital has had to shut because of such a threat. Eddie Halling is responsible for protection of physical assets, intellectual property and personnel. BBC investigation and security services has a staff of 12, and outsources some work to contractors (such as manned guarding and facilities management, and some personal protection work) and consultants (sometimes for risk assessing). In sum, Eddie’s team has to do its bit to keep the BBC on the road, making programmes. March 2001 saw a Real IRA bomb go off outside the Television Centre at Shepherd’s Bush in west London: a red taxi was left with its lights on outside the building. Police were able to clear the area, though one person was slightly injured. That the site’s CCTV cameras were not able to give clear images of the suspects prompted Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Alan Fry to urge retailers and other CCTV operations to check that their cameras are in good working order. The Met even took out newspaper and radio advertising to spread that message in the weeks after the bomb. While Eddie Halling did not mention the CCTV side of that incident, he did comment: ‘Until that happened to us at the BBC last year we thought we were immune from that kind of terrorist attack. It was sort of assumed that the terrorists probably needed the BBC to broadcast the effect of its work and we would probably not become a target.’ Possible reasons for the BBC becoming a target include guaranteed publicity; a terrorist view of the corporation as a pseudo-government organisation; and the Panorama programme’s investigations into the Omagh bombing. The BBC had only 20 minutes warning of the March 2001 blast. Eddie Halling said of security measures since: ‘Even with a 20-minute warning we would like to think that we can defend ourselves a little better.’ Measures have included better glass, internal shelters, and reworked escape routes for staff.
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Jill Dando
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Eddie Halling went on: ‘Who knows what the future holds for us. We need to assess and work out the risks of who we are offending when we make our programmes. We resolutely saw we are going to carry on making those programmes, but we have to measure the risks against our staff. Eddie Halling went on to recall the BBC 1 presenter Jill Dando, murdered on her Fulham doorstep in 1999: ‘We still don’t really know why she was picked out. We do know she was high-profile and we have had a number of threats against other members of staff in similar positions.’ For instance, the Radio 1 hip hop DJ Tim Westwood has been threatened, and was shot in the leg (and survived) in a drive-by shooting in London. The BBC encourages presenters and other victims of harassment to come forward – whether the harassing is unwanted e-mails, gifts, letters or visits. ‘We deal with it internally if it is appropriate by either sending a letter from our legal department or my department to the person giving this unwanted attention.’ The letter lets the person know that their actions are making the BBC personality a victim, and puts the BBC in a stronger legal position if further action has to be taken. Most but not all of the corporation’s executive welcome advice on personal safety; where an exec feels such advice or training is unnecessary, the security department gives indirect training, say to the exec’s personal assistant and driver.
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Blowing the whistle
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The corporation runs a whistle-blowing policy, which is widely-publicised; but Eddie Halling does not think it works: ‘We do get a trickle of information. But whistle-blowing is usually about someone claiming expenses or overtime they aren’t entitled to. It’s at a very low level, whistle-blowing in the BBC. This led to something of a debate from the floor, over whether whistle-blowing is seen by staff as snitching. That said, employees who do want to report something may not know who to speak to.
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Tools to measure risks
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Eddie Halling detailed the tools used to measure risks:<br>
– development of robust security policy and guidance;<br>
– anticipation of the risks through the risk assessment process;<br>
– logging crime and security risks on a computer database; <br>
– crime pattern analysis;<br>
– offender profiling;<br>
– target hardening;<br>
intelligence gathering;<br>
– benchmarking (with other public broadcasters, such as US ones who have had to deal with anthrax scares since September 11);<br>
– liaison with the police and others (such as the governmental security services, and consultants); and<br>
– intelligence sharing.
Eddie Halling went through each tool in turn. The staff of 12 work roughly half on security policy and risk assessment, and half on internal investigations. The March 2001 bomb attack, and September 11, has led the BBC to think hard about where it might be a victim of terrorism – given that it is among the largest news gathering organisations in the world, with 24,000 employees and about as many contractors, in 585 buildings in the UK and more than 300 bureaux overseas. There is the phenomenon that as refugees flee a disaster or wartorn zone, BBC and other news organisations are moving in the opposite direction. Eddie Halling’s team, he explained, support managers at the highest and facility level in identifying risks; what is happening; and trying to predict what might happen, based on crime patterns. Such statistics are presented at board level monthly, and as they are needed elsewhere. As for collecting and spreading intelligence with others (police forces in the UK, US and elsewhere; other broadcasters), Eddie Halling said: ‘Inside the BBC we find we have as much intelligence about risks as anybody could need. Our news gathering teams are second to none in identifying problems, risks, around the world and reporting. And we pick up a great deal of their information.’ He did add that even the BBC news did have to be assessed; it might be exaggerated for the sake of a story. The security department advises staff, contract facility managers and contractors how to protect themselves and their assets, not only by e-mail and letters but site visits and briefings, he said. Most guidance is published on the BBC staff intranet. Such guidance develops all the time; the risk assessment of all buildings is reviewed each year.
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Offender profiling
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When Eddie Halling began offender profiling, he found that those behind most petty crime – and less petty crime such as theft of laptops – were part of the contract guard force. Once that risk was identified, the BBC worked with the contract guarding company on vetting of staff; and guard pay was increased from about £5 an hour to £7, which brought in higher-quality guards. Such measures have eliminated crime from that quarter, he added. ‘I know that police can be led from the straight and narrow,’ he said, ‘but I couldn’t believe that the guard force could be involved in wholesale theft inside the BBC. Anyway, it has been stopped.’ The event chairman, Peter Power of Visor Consultants, commented that as the former managing director of a guarding company he had to hold his hand up (and he did, literally) that guarding staff could indeed rip you off.
