THE NATIONAL Business Crime Centre (NBCC) is holding a national week of action to support businesses and reduce business crime across the country. The week of action runs from Monday 17 October and involves police forces and partners working together to hold targeted operations in towns and city centres, running high-profile media and social media campaigns and engaging with local businesses, retailers and the community in a determined bid to raise awareness of business crime.

The City of London Police, which plays host to the NBCC, is holding a Safer Business Action (SaBA) Day to deliver a focused operation featuring joint patrols, the targeted intervention of offenders and a range of crime prevention activity. The latter includes raising awareness of local issues with members of the general public.

SaBA Days represent a joint approach by police, business, private security, Business Crime Reduction Partnerships and Business Improvement Districts working in partnership to focus resources into a designated location and create a significant impact that leads to crime reduction.

Partnership working and days of action are all part of normal activity for police forces and their partners. Although locally based, SaBA Days bring with them a national reach. Through the SaBA Steering Group and the NBCC, there are links to a national network of contacts. Best Practice can be shared and extra resources from private businesses with a national footprint may be able to assist with a given event.

Bringing police and partners together

Superintendent Patrick Holdaway, lead for the NBCC, said: “The week of action is an opportunity to bring police and partners together to tackle the key issues of business crime in their communities. Each police force taking part will be holding various crime prevention activities and initiatives designed to increase engagement with local businesses and retail outlets and tackle some of the most prolific offenders.”

Businesses trading on High Streets and in town centres are also encouraged to become involved and display the ShopKind messaging in their stores. All of the ShopKind materials are free to download online.

Edward Woodall, the ShopKind campaign’s co-ordinator, stated: “We encourage all businesses to support the national week of action and share messages about ShopKind with their customers and colleagues.”

The NBCC social media channels on LinkedIn and Twitter will have updates of the activity taking place throughout the week.

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THOUSANDS OF security professionals – including staff from FTL Secure Solutions – representing more than 70 countries descended on London’s Olympia from 27-28 September as the Nineteen Group-organised International Security Expo – for which Security Matters served as Lead Media Partner – returned to showcase the very latest technological innovations designed to protect people, businesses and the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure.

With more than 300 companies demonstrating thousands of the most cutting-edge products and solutions, attendees were provided with an unmissable opportunity to gain in-person demonstrations and insights, in turn helping them to understand how technology can meet current and future challenges.

Demonstrating the event’s invaluable role in facilitating new product launches, many exhibitors took the opportunity to unveil their latest innovations, sharing all-new technologies and refreshed solutions to a packed audience of buyers from the UK and international territories.

Among them, Apstec Systems announced the launch of a new version of its Human Security Radar. Version 4 of the innovative system provides high-throughput, low-contact security screening and ensures a “seamless” security experience for people being screened. It delivers “proven and effective” functionality in an attractive, smaller and more mobile unit that’s perfectly suited for deployments at prestigious locations.

Elsewhere on the show floor, Apex Vanguard demonstrated its Hecate ruggedised tactical camera system – a specialised IP67-rated multi-platform camera system featuring a wide view day camera, IR night camera and a FLIR thermal imaging camera all-in-one system. It’s supported by an integrated COFDM microwave transmission module with all the video and data transmitted to a fully functional ergonomic hand-held receiver unit.

Demonstrating two new product launches, LINEV Systems UK revealed its PROTEUS range of baggage X-ray security systems. The range is fully equipped with the latest Artificial Intelligence features to help detect pyrotechnics, flares and smoke bombs.

The company also showcased its Clearpass C.I, itself an X-ray scanner designed for smaller spaces. With a footprint of just 0.85 m², the technology offers “exceptional” mobility and “the fastest scan acquisition time available on the market”. It’s available with advanced contraband detection software and designed to detect contraband ‘on’ or ‘in’ the human body. By allowing selective area-focused screening, the solution also reduces screening and overexposure to other parts of the body.

Speaking about this year’s event, Tim Betts (sales and marketing professional at LINEV Systems UK, said: “International Security Expo is an essential event for us. The engaging show floor packed with attendees allowed us to network and generate new leads following our rebranding. Simply put, the International Security Expo is the flagship event for us in the UK.”

Analytics and investigations

X-ray capabilities were also the focus of the Videray stand where the company announced its new PX Ultra – the “most powerful” handheld backscatter X-ray imager on the market. After nearly three years of development and testing, the PX Ultra uses the first 160 keV X-ray source, enabling operators to see through up to 10 mm of steel. It features the same ergonomic form factor and intuitive software used by the popular PX1, reducing its scatter and leakage measurements by a factor of two.

Meanwhile, Canadian defence and security start-up, Patagona Technologies demonstrated its THREATDESK analytics and investigations platform. This solution provides OSINT analysts with the tools to combat co-ordinated information operations by state and non-state actors. It allows analysts to gain deep insights into online threats such as co-ordinated influence operations, online radicalisation and information security threats by dint of leveraging hundreds of online data sources from news, forums and social media platforms. Once collected, it uses advanced Artificial Intelligence methods to identify and respond to co-ordinated inauthentic behaviours.

Across the show floor, product demonstrations helped to bring the latest security technologies and solutions to life. In the LPCB Live Testing Lab, crowds gathered to witness a team of professional forced entry specialists put a range of physical security products through their paces.

Located in the show’s Perimeter Protection Zone, supported by the Perimeter Security Suppliers Association and sponsored by Barkers Fencing, the line-up included products from exhibitors including Eagle Automation, CLD Fencing, the Bradbury Group, Jacksons Fencing, Lochrin Bain and Surelock McGill.

Elsewhere, the Product Innovation Theatre provided a vital platform for the likes of QinetiQ, Greyscan Australia, T3K.AI, Pimloc Limited, Everbridge and Global Security Solutions to share an in-depth look at the rationale behind their latest innovations and the challenges they’re designed to meet. For example, Smiths Detection showcased its Canary Biological Detection Technology, which uses a genetically engineered immune cell called a ‘biosensor’ to identify and bind to a specific target. When a pathogen is found, a reaction starts causing the biosensor to luminesce. By measuring light output from the cell, it can determine if the target biological is present in the sample.

Returning to the Product Innovation Theatre on Day Two, members of the Defence and Security Accelerator team introduced three suppliers funded under the Innovative Research Cell 2020 for Explosives and Weapons Detection. The suppliers – Iconal Technology, Fraunhofer UK and IRSweep and Metrasens – shared insights into the innovative projects funded through this competition and the opportunities for like-minded businesses to become involved.

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IN ITS role as the national technical authority for physical and personnel protective security, the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) has launched a new training course aimed squarely at security Control Room operators.

The course and associated guidance produced by the CPNI enables businesses and organisations alike to plan and prepare for – as well as respond to – terrorist incidents, thereby increasing the capabilities of security Control Room operators and other security personnel.

Uniquely based around research undertaken since 2017, the course offers “world-first” immersive exercises that simulate multiple terrorist incident scenarios, enabling delegates to practice decision-making in real-time as if they were in a real Control Room environment.

The course is informed by the recently updated guidance, developed through detailed analysis of previous terrorist incidents, extensive research that has included live simulations of attacks (as part of the CPNI’s ASCEND trials) and surveys of existing Command and Control capabilities.

Importance of security Control Room operators

Through five years of research, the CPNI has found that most casualties in a terrorist incident occur within the first few minutes. During the initial period before the Emergency Services have arrived on scene, the security Control Room is the front line of defence, leading and organising the initial response to the terrorist incident.

Every second counts during an attack and every second that passes is an opportunity to keep the threat as far away from people as possible, assist those who need urgent help and work with the Emergency Services.

Effective Command and Control is critical for mitigating the impact of terrorist incidents. Sites are unlikely to provide an effective response to a terrorist incident unless: 

*Security Control Room personnel are provided with the appropriate equipment, policies and procedures.

*operators are given the necessary training and time to practice and exercise the response

Worryingly, the CPNI’s research has shown that UK businesses and organisations are not sufficiently prepared for terrorist incidents. Security Control Room operators are often unclear on what tasks need to be completed and whose responsible for each task, duly resulting in duplication of effort and essential tasks.

Terrorist attacks are perhaps the most challenging types of incidents an organisation will ever face. Fortunately, they are also rare and most people will never encounter one. That said, training and rehearsal are often the only ways in which security Control Room operators can gain the necessary skills and begin to practice them ahead of a real incident.

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