Some memories of yesterday’s interesting and enjoyable OSPAs thought leadership summit yesterday afternoon before the evening’s UK awards; from Mark Rowe.
Particularly striking on entering the Royal Lancaster venue beside Hyde Park in London were the two Corps of Commissionaires men in ceremonial uniform. The Corps changed its name to Corps Security years ago, but I still think of it as The Corps. Somehow the sight of the uniforms moved me more than pre-covid. The pride in appearance in front of your fellow man; the unspoken military service background.
The February 2020 UK OSPAs and the March 2020 skills summit by the Security Industry Authority (SIA) were the last events I recall before the dark canyon of pandemic lockdown. Yesterday then was satisfying as proof that covid is, we can hope, behind us. I regret that I did not take a minute to speak to the two Corps men and express some of my appreciation for them. These few words must suffice.
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The three-hour conference covered lots of ground and was well chaired by Prof Martin Gill. While good-natured, the conference was a serious occasion and not with a lot of laughs. Many of the laughs came from Ian Dyson’s talk, to his credit some at his own expense. He is six weeks retired. He noted that recently he was described as ‘the late Commissioner of the City of London Police’. He did say that he was 38 years in the police; he did not say how old he is.
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The Gospels tell us that no man can serve two masters. The SIA has three: the Home Office; the public; and the security industry (parts of which it badges, and which gives it its income). Since she became SIA chief in the autumn after a year as interim CEO, in her first speeches and again yesterday, Michelle Russell has unerringly focused on what the SIA alone can do (under the Private Security Industry Act 2001), what it can do, ‘nudging, assisting and influencing’ (such as the ‘skills agenda’, unavoidably knocked sideways by covid but a skills board is emerging), and what it is powerless to affect (the economy). A remark she made in passing showed both how careful the SIA is of what people say about it, and how ignorant the public can be. She said that someone (presumably online) spoke of her having ’employees’ – that is, a member of the public mistook the SIA badge on arms and chests for meaning that the SIA employs them all, and not commercial companies.
Given that the SIA cannot possibly satisfy all three masters, it is understandable that over the years the SIA may have been stand-offish by default. Credit then to Michelle Russell that at gone 5pm after the summit – as I was leaving – she was sat in a small circle outside the summit room talking to industry people. She is the sixth SIA CEO, and by my reckoning of the previous five men (for Michelle Russell is the first woman; oddly, all the SIA’s chairs have been women) at least two would not have stayed to do that.
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The SIA took a bit of a posse to the summit, and two of them remarked to each other that they had not seen each other (in-person) for two years. I and others kept agreeing that it was good to be back in-person, and how it’s better than connecting remotely. Although, the fact is that for a year or more we did manage, not face to face. The paradox is that part of being human is being adaptable, including doing things that are not naturally human.
Meeting face to face does give you serendipity, or plain bizarre conversations. Quite a number of contract guarding MDs and other big guns were there. I picked up with one of them a conversation about guarding in the dark, even in acres of woods, where some guards just don’t like it and don’t stay. The guarding person replied with how a badger cracking a twig may sound like a man; and that led to their story of going to a dinner and coming away to their hotel, wearing jogging shoes besides formal wear (I didn’t think to ask why) and so being able to run when chased by an aggressive badger. I know cows can turn aggressive, but I never had badgers down as nasty. You wouldn’t learn that on Zoom.
