27-11draft

Business Crime
Dan Hardy; also a
former Corporate Crime
and Security Lead at
Sainsbury’s
Photo courtesy of National
Business Crime Solution
Retailers aim for
consistency in what they
provide to customers; so
why not in response to
crime? Right: Burberry in
Bond Street. London’s
West End suffers from
smash and grab thefts of
high-value goods
Photos by Mark Rowe
Mayoral meet
Most motorcycle crime is
carried out on stolen
vehicles, so making them
harder to steal in the first
place is essential, a recent
meeting chaired by London
Deputy Mayor for Policing
and Crime Sophie Linden
heard.
18
coaching for correct response:
ASDA AIMS FOR
CONSISTENCY
A retailer is working with police
towards getting consistency in
response to crime, the Retail Risk
conference heard from Dan Hardy,
the new MD of National Business
Crime Solution (NBCS) who spoke in
place of Insp Sarah Cook of Thames
Valley Police. That force has worked
on Operation Retail with Asda;
similar trials have run in Somerset
and Cleveland. Dan Hardy, himself a
former Met Police man, began with
consistency: does a retailer train
staff consistently in how to deal with
confrontation? “I think the answer
is no.” Likewise, does a retailer get
consistent response from police when
ringing? Again, response may be
poor; or none at all. Have staff told
police call handlers the right things?
Hence the operation, to coach staff to
report a crime correctly. If a security
officer detains a suspect thief, the
police control room will ‘triage’. The
caveat, as Hardy said, is that police
may not have the resources to attend,
whatever the details. Police will ask
about threat; harm; and risk.
Thief or victim?
If a store has detained a 13-yearold
Rumanian shoplifter; or, is he a
possible victim of human trafficking?
The Thames Valley trial found an
87 per cent rise in reported business
crime; and a 17pc reduction in police
attending. That is, coaching and
awareness can give the retailer the
correct help. Hardy went through
what for police are ‘aggravating
factors’; a weapon such as a knife;
a ‘hate crime’; threat to staff or
public; an under-18 offender; a
repeat offender or known vulnerable
premises (such as a repeat victim
of crime; and if reports don’t get
through, police don’t know that, as
Hardy pointed out). Everyone, as
he acknowledged, can give a story
of dialling for police help and not
getting a reply for three hours. The op
offers at least the benefit that the shop
would know police are not coming,
and could move the offender on,
saving the retailer time. Sainsbury’s
besides Asda are looking to roll this
out further. p
NOVEMBER 2017 PROFESSIONAL SECURITY
Centre
launch
Last month saw the launch of the
National Business Crime Centre.
Metropolitan Police Det Chief Insp
Georgie Barnard, pictured, described
it to the Retail
Risk conference
in Leicester
beforehand.
Among the aims;
to ‘deliver a
better policing
response’ to
organised crime,
working with the
City of London
Police (on fraud) and the National
Crime Agency, on organised crime
against businesses that police might
not be picking up. She said: “I
understand the frustration with Action
Fraud [the official national reporting
line]. I absolutely get that the system
isn’t working as it should be.”
Bond Street
The centre is looking at specialist
crimes, such as ‘moped-enabled’
robberies on high-end stores in Bond
Street in London’s West End. Besides
working with the Met’s Flying Squad
on policing response to those smashand-grabs,
the centre is working
with local government on trying to
design out crime in that area, such
as with street furniture. The centre
wants to share alerts and updates on
incidents; and Georgie urged security
people if working on a project worth
doing in other places to share too;
‘the more input we have, everybody
benefits’. Work with the National
College of Policing and universities
is looking at ‘what works’, another
sign of a more business-like police.
As Georgie said: “Your bosses don’t
want to invest in things that haven’t
been evaluated, and my bosses
don’t.” Speaking to a retail loss
prevention and related audience, she
urged security teams to reach out to
local police, and encouraged local
briefings, saying there was nothing
more frustrating than having police
on a high street and security teams on
the same street, working in different
ways and not properly briefed. She
praised Sainsbury’s in Sussex, where
the chain’s security contractor Mitie
besides working in supermarkets will
walk through high streets wearing
tabards, ‘and this is proving really
successful’. They become more
familiar with other security teams
in the area, ‘and they really do
collaborate and share intelligence and
information and guess what, it drives
down crime in that area, people feel it
is a nicer, safer environment to go in
and shop, and we need to see more of
that kind of collaboration.’
Lack of trust
She acknowledged that one of the
biggest challenges is lack of trust
by police in private security; also
a theme of the Security Institute
annual conference, two days earlier.
DCI Barnard’s centre besides
working on counter-terrorism does
work on the police-industry crosssector
email alerts, CSSC, as she
recalled set up for the Olympics in
case of anticipated problems, and
proven successful. It’s free to sign
up to and is rolling out nationally.
She described herself as a ‘big fan’
of local business crime reduction
partnerships, who know the ‘local
scalliwags’. Here again she admitted
that retailers may struggle to see the
value in paying for so many, and said
that the centre will be setting out what
a local partnership should look like,
seeking to raise standards. On
violence reduction (‘number one
priority for all of us’) she thanked
Iona Blake of Boots and others
for setting up with the Home
Office a working group, looking at
technical (body worn cameras) and
training (in conflict management),
besides working with the Ministry
of Justice, aiming to reduce
violence against shop staff. p
www.professionalsecurity.co.uk
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