The Autumn Statement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer made plain difficult times ahead for public finances, and the economy in general. What might that mean for private security? In a series of articles, Mark Rowe considers this, starting with high streets. It depends what time of day or night you are talking about, or particular towns and cities, and even parts of the same place.
High streets whether shops by day or pubs and clubs and other places of entertainment by night were already feeling the competition of the online world, and the sheer amount of things offered to consumers, even before covid. Local government had seen the merits of backing a ’24-hour economy’, to quote a long guidance document from the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan’s City Hall. A diverse (in terms of shops) and mixed 24-hour economy can be more resilient and responsive to changing patterns of behaviour, the document suggested. If someone goes out in the evening to the theatre, they may also have a meal out.
The Mayor’s strategising and more recent grants to three parts of London for ‘Night Time Enterprise Zones‘ rather takes the security of people going out – defined as after 6pm – for granted. A first zone was Walthamstow, in 2019. The May print edition of Professional Security Magazine did feature the night-time women’s safety charter, mentioned in the document.
While security may get overlooked, then, the document does acknowledge that ‘perceptions of a place at night’ matter – for example, if you’re out and you see lots of people, and diverse (here in terms of colour, age and disability) people, in well-lighted public places, that ‘helps improve perceptions of vitality, safety and security’. In other words, people can vote with their feet and their wallets; if they feel unsafe somewhere, they will go elsewhere – and may travel considerable distances to have a good time, further than for their everyday shopping, and maybe staying over in hotels (meaning further economic activity).
Certainly high streets know that they are competing with one another – 18 places applied for those three mayoral grants. The document is useful for giving international examples of similar work to make cities desirable by night – summertime late night opening of parks (and cultural institutions such as museums) in Paris, including extra security and police patrols; in western Sydney the Parramatta Lanes festival, which had the double benefit of bringing in visitors and changing ‘negative perceptions of laneways’ that hosted the festival, ‘associated with knife crime and anti-social behaviour. On that note, other cities may have parts that draw younger visitors, precisely because they are ‘edgy’ and in practice allow on-street drug dealing, such as Camden Town in north London.
The document also quotes approvingly the Brixton BID (business improvement district) in south London, for its spending on street pastors, that as in other places provide a ‘reassuring presence on the streets’; and two police officers, costing £70,000 a year. Every other Friday at 7pm a briefing between police, door and other security staff for about 20 minutes goes over crime and other issues, including known offenders; as attended by Professional Security magazine in summer 2016 and featured in the September 2016 print edition of the magazine.
In most British high streets then, by day and night, mixed public-private securing of people and property has grown up, without central guidance or even much knowledge of what a national retailer or pub chain can expect somewhere. Meaning; if you break a leg or are the victim of an armed robbery, you dial 999, and you can expect an ambulance or a police car. How though does the security of shops and pubs in Peterhead compare with Peterborough?
It depends on how dynamic or well-off a BID is, or even if there is one at all. Someone has to pay, and BIDs arose precisely because previous business crime reduction partnerships found it hard to stay afloat – businesses would not pay to join, but enjoyed the same gains from less crime, as paying members did. Hence once a BID is voted for, all businesses in the area pay a levy.
For more on Night Time Enterprise Zones visit: https://www.london.gov.uk/programmes-strategies/arts-and-culture/24-hour-london/night-time-enterprise-zones.
Continued.
