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Retail Security Servator: ‘a gig for everyone’ a Sunday afternoon at intu Lakeside Right: Upstairs at intu Lakeside, Insp Tony Adams and Pc Laura Stellon during, on the mall floor below, a Servator deployment Photos by Mark Rowe We’ve followed the progress of Project Servator for four years now. Our latest update takes us to a new sector, and a different time of the week. On the first Sunday of the school holidays, intu Lakeside was busy. Not Christmas busy, so busy that no matter how many car park places the shopping centre has, there aren’t enough, but busy enough for you to look anxiously around the food court on the top floor for a seat to eat. At the escalators below was a uniformed police officer with a sniffer dog, and a second officer, as the last Project Servator deployment of the day on the first anniversary of Essex Police’s use of the Servator patrolling method at the West Thurrock-M25 shopping mall. Sorted Something about a dog always draws people, and so it was here; shoppers in steady ones and twos went up to the animal, to pet it. On a digital advertising board beside them, on of the recurring adverts besides for the usual consumer goods was an adapted ‘see it say it sorted’ security message, that asked people if they saw anything they weren’t sure about or comfortable with to contact intu staff – who were conspicuous and plentiful enough, whether security or cleaners, www.professionalsecurity.co.uk in their bright blue waistcoats. As at other malls, they are quick to the scene of any litter or spills. At the top of the escalator was Insp Tony Adams of Essex Police‘s operational support unit (OSU). He told Professional Security of how it had taken some work to get the Servator ad on those boards – as the wording had to be just right for the shopping centre owners; and it had to have the permission of the company that runs the advertising boards, for each Servator message that comes up as a public service means fewer commercial adverts, and less revenue. Hence, he said, it took some time, but was ‘not insurmountable’. That was one sign – as was the very presence of police, even armed police on occasion as part of some Servator deployments – of a changed attitude among intu and other mall owners. Assets Various mixes of Servator ‘assets’ – including an Essex Police drone, an area that the force is keen to be leading on – were deployed that day, from opening of doors at 11am (and indeed before). The aim was as in other places using the Servator method, including Stansted Airport in Essex’s own area: to be unpredictable, and to deny, deter and detect. Any ‘hostiles’ will invariably visit the place that they are thinking of attacking. If they find a Servator deployment in progress – and part of the unpredictability is that Servator is not only for the most busy times of day and week – they will wonder what is going on and will be disturbed, and even detected. Besides uniformed police officers (in varied numbers) there are plain-clothes ones also. And while the dog was attracting attention at the bottom of the escalators, at the top were two uniformed, peak-capped officers. Encouraging others It was not spelt out to Professional Security what the two men were doing. The details of Servator are understandably not made public either by forces or by the official Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI). For instance, as Insp Adams said, the public aren’t told what the dogs are trained to sniff for. You could guess that the men, with their backs to the food court and a view down the mall as far as the Debenham’s department store at the lake end, were not there to think about what they could have to eat. They were standing there as a visible reassurance to the public, and to look for anything out of the ordinary; such as anyone spooked by the sight of police. As Insp Adams told Professional Security, part of Servator is to encourage others – in Lakeside’s case, the mall staff, bus drives and Royal Mail deliverers – to be ‘eyes and ears’ and to report anything they What they say (1) Marc Myers, general manager at intu Lakeside: “We have very close working relationships with the security services and police at a national and local level so we had no hesitation in working with Essex Police on Project Servator. We take the safety and security of our customers and staff extremely seriously and this project is just another way in which we continually adapt and flex our approach.” Servator in brief What is Servator? It’s crime prevention and public safety policing tactics. It can be visible, or covert, but unpredictable in timing and resource mix. Why does it matter to private security? Because you may be called on - for public space CCTV, or ANPR as at intu Lakeside - or because it’s on your doorstep, for example at main rail stations, Catterick barracks, Liverpool city centre, and for this summer’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival. ➬ SEPTEMBER 2017 PROFESSIONAL SECURITY 41
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