Northamptonshire is the model for joined-up work on business crime, the launch event for the county-wide business crime reduction partnership heard.
Introducing Northamptonshire Action Against Business Crime was Sir David O’Dowd, the former Northants chief constable who agreed to be patron of NAABC. Sir David pointed to the December issue of Professional Security regarding the latest British Retail Consortium crime survey. He described NAABC as the next evolutionary step in the life of town centre crime partnerships. The body has a contract to supply software - the National Business Information System, from Hicom - to the county’s crime partnerships. That way, towns can exchange intelligence about travelling criminals; and identify emerging crime trends. Sir David stressed that the organisation would be run by business for business, and not by police. As signs of that, NAABC is based at the local chamber of commerce offices; and the launch was at Rushden and Diamonds football club. The county police force has given NAABC the Key Contact scheme set up by the force in 2000. NAABC aims to raise Key Contact membership from 2,100 to 6,000; and to offer members seminars and e-mail alerts. Under the scheme - visit keycontactplus.co.uk - members can register (and alter details of) up to four key-holders or other contractors to be phoned by the police control room if anything happens, especially out of hours. Users can search for information about, for instance, call-outs and alarms. Endorsing Sir Peter, Northants chief constable Peter Maddison admitted the police had allowed a sense of ‘insurance will pick up the cost’ and that police have other priorities. While admitting that police have neglected business, he added that ‘eyes have been opened’. He and other speakers praised the work of Sgt Paul Valentine, the force’s business crime manager, who is returning however to ‘mainstream’ policing.
Change in culture
Mike Schuck, chief executive of London-based Action Against Business Crime, recalled nine years of work to change the culture in retail away from arrests being all that retail security counted; retailers up to board level having an ethos of not talking to each other (about shared crime issues); and retailers not being able to talk to each other, in any case, because internally they did not collect crime data, so as to manage the threats to their business. The changed ethos, towards partnership work, Mike Schuck suggested, could expand into other sectors, such as transport, pubs and clubs, hotels and marinas. His message to the business audience: if you want to change significantly the way crime is dealt with, you are going to have to make a contribution, and pay for it - the Key Contact Plus scheme as an example. He spoke of how the UK is unique in how it is dealing with business crime in a co-ordinated manner, with ‘embedded partnerships’, rather than like a firework - that is, an effort starting with much heat and publicity, but flickering out. Mike Schuck called Northants a national model, “and the model I would like to see replicated in other counties”. As he admitted, it is difficult to convince businesses to work in partnership, rather than in isolation. Some attending the event also spoke of another difficulty - if a partnership is able to reduce crime and deter offenders, the temptation is for members to stop paying to be a member. Hence the need to keep offering services, so people see they are getting something for their money. In other words, even a scheme that is ahead of its time - as the local police’s Key Contact scheme was in 2000 - can fall off if it is not marketed, and if members do not see anything for their money. Mike Schuck presented certificates to David Croft, chairman of the Wellingborough and East Northamptonshire Partners Against Crime; Graham Goss, the Northampton accountant who chairs NAABC; Neil Griffin, chairman of Kettering borough crime initiative; David Green, chairman of Corby Retail and Business Initiative Against Crime (CORBIAC); and Laurie Wignall, Daventry business crime manager.
