Magazine Who is protecting who

CommentDISRUPTION, DELAY AND LOSS:Cutting to the rootof UK metal theft46David MyersProfessional SecurityMagazine MD RoyCooper writes: At theWorshipful Company ofSecurity Professionalsannual spring ball lastyear I auctioned off adouble page spreadwith the guarantee ofan image relating to itbeing on the front cover.ADT bought it at £3500,proceeds to Companycharities. Here is theirarticle, which is allabout metal theft.Below: A grille coveringthe entrance to Thamesmagistrates court inLondon’s East EndPhotos by Mark RoweDavid Myers, Regional ManagingDirector - South, ADT Fire andSecurity, discusses metal theft.The scrap metal industry isworth £5 billion a year to theUK economy, making metaltheft a potentially lucrative prospectfor thieves. The value of scrap metalhas soared in recent years, whichhas meant metal manufacturers,suppliers and recyclers have beenincreasingly targeted for calculatedand opportunistic crime for theirhigh value assets. The theft of metalis costing the UK economy about£770m a year in loss and damages.Already, the UK government islooking to change the law on ‘cashfor scrap’ in a bid to address thegrowing issue. The British TransportPolice has also introduced ‘OperationTornado’ to stamp down on theillegal trade of scrap metal. OperationTornado requires participating scrapmetal dealers to obtain and providephotographic proof of identity for allpeople trading in scrap metal.ImpactIt is just one of a number of measuresto restrict and control the sale andmovement of stolen metal withouthindering legitimate scrap metaldealers. Already, thescheme has shown toimpact on the abilityof criminals to trade instolen scrap material,thereby reducingoverall crime. Thescheme was developedwith the BritishMetals RecyclingAssociation (BMRA),the Associationof Chief PoliceNorthumbria, DurhamAPRIL 2013 PROFESSIONAL SECURITYand Cleveland Police. Uptakehas increased since the scheme’sinception; with local police forcesacross the UK signing up to takepart after a successful pilot schemein the north-east of England. Whilstpolice initiatives such as Tornado arehaving a positive impact on reducingcrime, the onus is still on businessesto take steps in effective and robustsecurity measures to stop theirpremises becoming a potential targetfor metal theft. Criminal activitycan be damaging to a business dueto property damage and disruptioncaused when intruders attempt to gainaccess to the property. The safety andwell-being of staff and customers isanother critical issue that should notbe overlooked and criminal activitycan quickly damage a businesses’reputation and result in customer lossfor any business, large or small,to implement robust and effectivesecurity solutions in order to notbecome a victim of metal theft. In thisarticle I will explore how the rightsecurity measures can help to reducecriminal activity.SolutionsDepending on the size of thebusiness, securing the perimeter withrobust access control may need tosite, such as a railway station, scrapmetal yard or school, reducing thenumber of access points can allowsecurity operations to be focussedand targeted. It is also importantfor security staff to restrict on-siteaccess to authorised personnel andvehicles only, which can be achievedthrough the use of Automatic NumberPlate Recognition (ANPR), at thepoint of access for vehicles. Accesscontrol can be strengthened furtherthrough biometrics, such as retina orand password locks are also ableto control the movement of peoplewithin a building.ANPR and CCTVANPR, combined and integrated withis an effective way to bolster securitypersonnel to and from the site. HDevents and provide a higher levelof discernible detail compared topost-event analysis, meaning policeinvestigators and security staff areable to conduct their work faster byanalysing and processing archivedof electronic time-stamps. Integrationof HD cameras onto IP networkinfrastructure also allows operationalstaff to be persistently aware of anysecurity violations and allow them tohave rapid access to live or recordedimages with 24-hour access to theirnetworks.PSIM platformAccess control security andsurveillance should be integratedinto Physical Security InformationManagement (PSIM). This is asoftware platform designed tosimplify the command-control ofmultiple security systems. It bringstogether events from systems into awww.professionalsecurity.co.uk