During its Easter conference, the Association of University Chief Security Officers (AUCSO) presented its Annual Awards 2023. The winners were announced at a Gala Dinner on the final evening of the three day event. The overall host was Heriot-Watt University on the outskirts of Edinburgh, whose head of safeguarding Les Allen was the outgoing chair of the association for campus security managers. The dinner was at the Signet Library in Edinburgh.
Security Officer of the Year went to Mark Neary, of Manchester Metropolitan University.
The judges praised Mark for his bravery in tackling aggressive persons who were in the process of robbing a retail outlet on campus. Mark arrived at the scene alone and was confronted and assaulted by the alleged perpetrators while making their exit. In a serious and violent incident Mark clung on and continued to try to prevent the individuals making a get-away, despite being assaulted and receiving injuries to his face and body. Mark refused to take any time off – he was back in his role the very next day.
Security Manager of the Year is Adrian Dennehy, of Cardiff Metropolitan University, beside the River Taff and Llandaff Cathedral, just to the north of the city centre.
Judges said that Adrian had worked tirelessly to introduce and embed innovative working practice into the Campus Protection Services team whilst raising the profile and importance of Security within the Higher Education sector.
As a highly active contributor and leader in his role as chair of the Wales region of AUCSO, Adrian shares learnings from police and national policing agencies around issues such as ‘County Lines’ drug dealing and potential exploitation of students. He has promoted the importance and benefits from sharing information across South Wales based universities, while ensuring South Wales Police and other agencies are engaged to better inform and enable the collective approach to countering such threats against higher education.
D Team – Colchester, University of Essex was named Security Team of the Year.
Judges said the D Team was in this instance the ‘A’ team, citing the bravery that the officers showed when dealing with a serious incident in a housing block (which holds 200 students).
When presented with a situation involving a number of students who had raised welfare concerns regarding a fellow student, who had become violent and was in possession of a bladed weapon, the D Team didn’t hesitate to evacuate students and restrain the student in possession of a bladed weapon from injuring himself.
The team managed to get all the students, some of whom had sustained injuries, out of the flat and to safety, while they restrained the offender and kept him under control while awaiting further assistance from two other members of the team and emergency services. They managed to support the restraining of the student whilst other colleagues managed the situation on the ground, supporting the students involved and co-ordinating emergency services.
Separately, Essex’s security manager Tom Brown is interviewed in the May print edition of Professional Security Magazine.
AUCSO’s new chair, Oliver Curran of University College London (UCL) said: “We had some truly inspirational nominations across a challenging year for University Security teams. The entries demonstrate the range of risks and challenges that our Security teams face on a daily basis, as well as the incredibly professional personnel that continually keep their communities safe with their innovative approaches.
“All of the shortlisted entries were very worthy winners showing consistently high levels of professionalism, integrity, dedication, and passion, and they are all a credit to their profession.”
Pictured left to right courtesy of Aucso are Adrian Dennehy, Ollie Curran and Aucso Chief Operating Officer, Julie Barker.
