ProfSec27-09ps

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
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