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Shopping Centres
target-hardened’. Terrorists, and
criminals generally, know they are
not welcome. “And it has been really
successful and I have had a number
of meetings with other police forces.”
Ian mentioned the Metro Centre
and Eldon Square as having regular
firearms patrols; and when the UK
went ‘critical’, all Intu centres did.
A feature of Servator is the care
taken to evaluate, that tactics are
having good effects. Likewise Ian
acknowledged that the sight of police
with a long weapon in a mall could
look intimidating; but it was liked by
the public.
Exercises
Ian went on to exercises. You recall
a police exercise that provoked
some controversy in the mainstream
media over the suicide attacker
(from Greater Manchester Police)
in the acted-out scenario shouted an
Arabic phrase? It was inside an Intu
mall. At an exercise at Merry Hill,
Ian invited Brigadier Tim Hodgetts,
a founder of the CitizenAID app,
telling the public what first aid to
give in an emergency. The Odeon
cinema at Trafford Centre was hired
to give 185 retailers Project Griffin
and ‘run-hide-tell’ terror awareness.
Ian singled out Marks & Spencer, and
Debenhams, as advocates of Griffin:
“It isn’t about frightening everybody,
it’s ‘be alert, not alarmed’.” Braehead
(in Glasgow), Lakeside and Trafford
Centre in 2016 and Merry Hill and
Metro Centre this year have hosted
exercises, attended by 999 services
and the Army. Intu is moving into
exercises at smaller centres. Ian
touched on the 14 weeks of planning
for Trafford’s; 200 Intu staff took
part; 80 observers; 800 volunteers;
most tenants; even make-up artists.
The centre shuts perhaps 11pm to
5am for the exercise, and still opens
as usual in the morning.
Lessons
What have exercises taught? Closer
management of media, for one thing.
The exercise included simulated
social media. Ian pointed to recent
events, such as the Parsons Green
attempted attack, and the speed of
the media, that comms teams have
to anticipate and manage. Police and
Intu can talk about practicalities,
such as routes around malls. Intu
also reviewed incident plans and
disaster recovery; because the reality
is that after an attack a site won’t
re-open at once (and Ian agreed with
a later question from the floor; as the
Borough Market showed after the
London Bridge attack, perishables
will perish as businesses cannot enter
the cordon while police investigate;
Intu would have to work with its
retail tenants, and their suppliers,
in such a scenario). Like other
businesses in central London, Intu’s
head office went into lock-down after
the Westminster attack. That raised
the question, how to know where
every employee is. It means a big
piece of work for Ian on developing
a communication tool, to account for
staff in such an incident. Other work
is around assessing duty managers
(in charge of valuable assets, after
all) and giving training in incident
management.
Summing up
Ian summed up with challenges; no
two centres operate the same. He
repeated the phrase ‘be alert, don’t
be alarmed’; a terrorist incident is
unlikely, but Intu is asking staff to
take the advice. p
brit’s regional view:
Middle East
‘very different’
Doing retail loss prevention in the
Middle East has changed in the last
dozen years, and still is changing,
Peter Page told Retail Risk.
It used to be unlimited budgets;
now it’s cost versus benefit, and
justifying any spending, and indeed
LP’s existence. Security officers
were once treated as chauffeurs; the
ones managers gave their keys to,
for starting their cars five minutes
before leaving work - which in the
UK in winter might be to start the
heating, but in Arabia is to start the
air-conditioning. Peter, who while
working in the UK chaired the
Brighton business crime reduction
partnership - one of the more goahead
ones in the country - was
speaking to the conference in a
personal capacity. He arrived in the
region to find that UK crimes against
retail - organised thefts, till snatches,
purse-dipping - didn’t exist in the
Middle East. Security was only there
to catch thieves; it wasn’t really
understood. Police, though, were
receptive, and keen to be involved.
World class
On the surface, he suggested, the
Middle East appears similar to
the western world; but once you
understand the culture, and the legal
differences, ‘it’s very different’.
He spoke of how retailers there are
aiming for world-class status, for
example by gaining international, ISO
standards. One development where
that region does mirror the UK is in
the loss prevention department taking
on a wider risk remit, which does
require learning and applying skills
to add value and achieve business
objectives; and so get the business to
buy in to LP or indeed related things
such as business continuity. Like in
the UK, LP, then, is no longer a ‘dark
art’ to the rest of the business it’s
in. As Peter said, LP simply cannot
be seen as the department that says
‘no’. Peter gave a hint of life in the
region, too, where the mall is a hub of
social activity, part of the community,
and shopping is ‘almost a national
pastime’. p
About Peter Page
He’s been working in the
Middle East for the past 12
years. He’s a Fellow of the
Security Institute; a
Chartered Security
Professional; a member of
the Business Continuity
Institute; and vicechairman
of the ASIS
Dubai chapter.
HAPPY
‘I cannot stress enough
the need for businesses
to have clear, simple
plans, that are
practiced. When the
attack occurs it is too
late to consider what
you are going to do.’
Matt Maer, director
group security, at
Canary Wharf.
www.professionalsecurity.co.uk DECEMBER 2017 PROFESSIONAL SECURITY 43
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