Expert commentary

Robert Wint, Marketing Director, EMEA of Verint Systems talks about the growth of wireless CCTV and whether the existing technology is ready to change. With the growth in the acceptance of wireless technologies, we are still yet to see the predicted rise in wireless video – indoor or outdoor.  The technologies are converging and I believe we are on the cusp of a major boom in secure, digital wireless networked video.  The benefits of wireless networking are well documented,...

Ken Sutherland of Telindus Surveillance Solutions discusses the growth of networked video surveillance over the past ten years and whether the security industry is now ready for this change. Some of the early pioneering companies in the video over IP market are approaching their 10-year anniversaries, but few of them are profitable yet.  Most of these companies became involved in this market by inventing some video encoding technology and then trying to find an application for that technol...

Steve Hunt, President of 4A International, discusses some of the challenges associated with integrating physical security and IT and offers some practical solutions.   A chief financial officer recently told 4A International that in one month he received two purchase order requests that he could not approve.  One came from the security department for an €1 million upgrade to the access control infrastructure to manage people and their privileges to corporate assets....

Pauline Norstrom, Vice-Chairman of the BSIA’s CCTV Section discusses the newly published Code of Practice for Digital Recording Systems and the excellent advice it offers security professionals in relation to the admissibility of digital evidence in the judicial system.  The prolific uptake of digital video recording by the CCTV industry has led to a pressing need for definitive guidance where digital video images are being used as evidence in the criminal justice system.  This...

How a local authority has gone about putting a new CCTV monitoring system through its paces, in the real world. Luton has a track record of getting the best out of its town centre CCTV scheme.  More than 130 cameras are monitored 24-365 by a team of control centre operators who have collectively played their part in more than 6,000 arrests and who have on several occasions received commendations from the police for their work.  These have included helping to identify a serial rapi...

Bob Randall, chief operating officer of Inkerman, took Mark Rowe out to lunch.  The terror threat is as high as it's ever been, he said; but don't panic.  Bob Randall became the corporate risk, intelligence and investigation consultancy's Chief Operating Officer recently (featured in our September issue).  A career Metropolitan Police man, he retired as a detective chief supt.  His work took in counter-terrorism, covert operations, security, major investigations,...

At a time when private security companies are coming under greater public scrutiny following two recent high profile cash snatches, the whole industry is on the verge of collapse, according to security boss, Major Frank Quigley.  Major Quigley, a retired Military Police officer who has advised the Ministry of Defence on the establishment of its own security services is a director of a rapidly expanding medium sized security company, Guarding UK Ltd.  He said: “The industry has b...

Britain’s police forces have been urged to embrace the private security industry in the fight against crime as the industry undergoes the biggest change in its history. Andy Drane, Deputy Chief Executive of the Security Industry Authority (SIA), the government body tasked with regulating the private security industry, told a Reliance Security Services conference in Manchester yesterday that the changes promised a new future for law enforcement. “The police now have no philosophical...

We left Jim Chalmers, one of the leading lights of UK stadium security, safety and stewarding, speaking last issue about the passion excited by football.  He continues ... What of sport-watchers’ passions?  If a club is winning, fans are happy.   But not all clubs can win at once.   If you or I are unhappy with service at a supermarket or bank, or an opera, we probably simply do not go back.   We do not stand outside the place, chanting.  But s...

If a 2012 London Olympics had tens of thousands of volunteer meeters and greeters, they would be the security operation’s eyes and ears. How? How would you train those people? How would you recruit? A speaker at the sports summit gave some pointers. Use of volunteer security staff or stewards is not widespread in the UK, for health and safety and insurance reasons.   And think of the Walter Wolfgang affair at last year’s Labour Party conference.   But at the larg...

Biometrics help secure airports around the world, but the protection doesn’t stop there.  Nathan Cummings explores the application of Biometrics further. Travel to the United States, and chances are good that at the gate, you’ll be greeted by a machine rather than a person. Like a customs agent reading a passport, these machines use physical features to confirm that you really are who you claim to be – except that unlike a person, they can’t be fooled, bribed or caj...

The view that ‘dodgy' guard people will be on the way out and prices will rise for guard providers is rose-tinted, according to Douglas Greenwell, Marketing Director, of G4S Security Services (UK).  He spoke of his firm putting through price increases of about two per cent, to recover from licensing, and meeting some resistance from customers.  He said: "That's to reinforce the message - the only way prices are going to go up, or the only way we are going to improve our returns,...

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 th...

What might police modernisation mean for private security companies and consultancies?  Alan Beckley, director, Baddiley Associates, offers some pointers. Greater inclusion in the ‘extended family of policing’ Need to form new relationships based on new police structure Need to understand new boundaries and new responsibilities Vigilance to spot new opportunities and police tasks, roles and responsibilities that fall off the list of police priorities Vig...

Show caution when making choices in CCTV, advise the authors of the latest good practice guide from The Security Institute (TSI). Gordon Tyerman, the former Surrey Police CCTV manager, now a trainer, chaired the working party behind the guide to acquiring, deployment and use of CCTV.  Introducing the 82-page paperback - cost £25, free to TSI members - Gordon Tyerman said:  “There are hundreds of choices within the CCTV world and many people willing to help and advise you;...

The recent UK launching of the ADI Expo - by ADI International, the Honeywell-owned distributor of security products - was an occasion to talk to Mike Reddington, UK MD, to ask where the distributor is and where it is going. Briefly, something about Mike Reddington: qualified as an electronics engineer, he progressed in field sales, becoming UK sales manager at Racal Guardall.  He then joined Gardiner Technology as business development manager, and became sales director; and sales and mark...

The planning and thinking for the 2012 Olympics is well under way - but there are plenty of big events to secure first, the International Sports Security Summit (ISSS) heard in London recently.  Mark Rowe reports. Day one saw Olympics speakers to the fore - Peter Ryan, the British former senior police officer who as chief of New South Wales police was in charge of security at the 2000 summer games; and Met Chief Insp Andrew Amery, head of security for London 2012.  Police were al...

The venue for a recent business crime conference was an example of good practice, the event heard.   Bob Golding, Warwickshire Police Assistant Chief Constable and ACPO lead on business crime, was among speakers at the Belfry golf club.  Welcoming the audience to Warwickshire, ACC Golding said he hoped that their cars would not be broken into.  Such crime at the club near Birmingham - thieves breaking into cars to take laptops, on view on back seats - is no longer a hot-spot...

Finishing our two-part look at the Government's ‘partial regulatory impact assessment' on the SIA's approved contractor scheme (ACS). The document does say that among the SIA's aim is “to strengthen the extended police family by encouraging and supporting further engagement of the private security industry.  The scheme could be a key contributor in helping the police to tackle crime and disorder and reducing the fear of crime.” It does not go into more detail.  The do...

There are big changes happening out there, and there will be big winners and big losers in the security industry, Prof Martin Gill told audiences at the recent Norbain LIVE! roadshows. In his words: are you up for it? Martin Gill's first words set the tone: “One thing is certain; we are in a period of change. Some people will be winners and will win a lot; and some will be losers and will lose a lot. The winners and losers are being decided now.”  Security Industry Authority r...

The week after the London Tube and bus bombings, London 2012 Chairman Sebastian Coe said: “The tragic events of July 7 have affected us all but have also made Londoners and the bid team ever more resilient, determined and united to deliver the best Games ever.”   Lord Coe will be chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG). Crime designed out Lord Coe stressed the key role security planners had played in London's bid and said that creating a...

Iris recognition, the only biometric technology designed to operate in 1-to-many search mode, found a project where the database is finally large enough to be called in.  It’s in India, the world’s second most populous country, where the Government of Andhra Pradesh state announced on 16th JUNE, 2005 a program to control and manage the distribution of state-issued food ration cards.  The program awarded to LG Electronics US-based Iris Technology Division will see 20 million...

The July 7 bombs in London were small-time stuff, it is claimed; and worse is to come, according to a security consultant. David Rubens of north London-based Meido was, ironically, in central London attending a police anti-terrorism seminar on the morning of July 7 when the police asked attenders to clear the building. David told Professional Security : “I have been in cities under attack before; and [on July 7] there was absolute normality.  People were hanging around; going to McDo...

How do employers comply with data protection laws and yet investigate wrong-doing? Monitoring staff - especially covertly - has been rather a grey area, despite the Data Protection Act. A security or fraud manager may want to observe staff - examine logs of websites visited to check that staff are not downloading pornography, say; or videoing workers outside the workplace, to collect evidence that they are not in fact sick; or asking credit reference agencies to check that staff are not in fina...

Drugs-dog searching in six Buckinghamshire schools by a private security company It was a partnership at work - school head teachers, the local education authority, Thames Valley Police, a private dog-training company [Grosvenor International Services, GIS ] and a drugs counselling agency [AddAction].  Their approach: to seek to be supportive rather than punitive.  They would regard young drug-users as victims rather than criminals, Prof John Grieve pointed out in an introduction to t...

DEADLINES FOR OFFICERS, DOOR STAFF Businesses must act now to ensure they have reputable security staff in place by next year, says the Security Industry Authority (SIA). This follows a survey by the authority which found that seven per cent of businesses in the London region were ‘not very confident' in their security solution. Commenting on the research, John Saunders , SIA Chief Executive, pictured said: “All businesses, irrespective of size or sector, need to make sure their pr...