The Police and Security Group Initiative (PaS) has published the conclusions from its consultation conducted earlier this year. The consultation’s aims were to identify the capabilities of the private security industry that would be interested in working better with the Metropolitan Police; effectiveness of existing structures; and barriers and enablers to such collaboration. The PaS Group has analysed the results, established a series of workgroups to address the key areas of opportunity, and is now looking for helpers to develop ideas.
Receiving 197 responses from those responsible for managing and providing security, as well as membership bodies and the police, almost 30pc of respondents cited communication and information sharing as key to making the collaboration between police and private security more effective, while lack of trust and staff changes were highlighted as potential barriers. In terms of aspirations for PaS, there was a desire to improve communications and to make intelligence sharing easier, to improve attitudes and mutual understanding to encourage trust, and for training.
Results also highlighted the complexity of the partnership landscape, with respondents identifying 71 relevant bodies involved in or representative of collaboration. Among these were the British Security Industry Association (BSIA), The Security Institute, ASIS, CSARN and London First. The consultation also identified 24 standards and accreditations, and over 20 training and skills courses and providers that were relevant to PaS collaboration.
PaS Project Lead, Geoff Zeidler, pictured, says: “This consultation has demonstrated a high level of interest and support for developing an improved collaboration model and provided some excellent data and ideas from which all stakeholders with responsibility for the security of the public in London can build on. The opportunities are significant and the challenge will be to deliver a limited number of recommendations on how to use and enhance existing initiatives; but also focus resource and investment.
“PaS will do this by acting as a forum in which those who wish to work together to improve clarity, share best practice and develop and test ideas for better collaboration with the Met can do so with the full support of the Met and Mayor’s Office for Policing And Crime (MOPAC) .
“We are proud to have already supported both the recent Smash & Grab Event which focused on best practice, and the Safer Spaces Accreditation, and established the PaS Community Network to assist in active engagement.”
Commander Simon Letchford, who is the lead for Business Crime at the Met, said: “At a time we are all challenged to make the most of our resources, I believe that this is a critical initiative which is already making progress.”
To develop, PaS has established a structure which will involve three core workgroups under a central PaS committee, which leads the initiative and includes the BSIA, Security Industry Authority (SIA), Metropolitan Police Service, MOPAC, CSARN, London First and the Safer London Business Partnership.
The Information, Intelligence and Communications workgroup will identify current systems and intelligence sources and make recommendations on how these can be used most effectively. The Standards, Training and Accreditations workgroup will seek to improve access and understanding of what has most relevance to collaboration as routes to building confidence and trust. And an Effective Collaboration workgroup will establish and support a register of initiatives and capabilities in London; and promote and share best practice collaboration initiatives
Geoff Zeidler adds: “Together, we hope that these can start to make the aspiration of a more effective collaboration between the Metropolitan Police and private security industry become concrete, and both assist and ensure learning from improvements across the whole of the United Kingdom.”
The results of the initial PaS consultation can be downloaded from the BSIA’s website: www.bsia.co.uk/about-us/partnerships/police-security-initiative
Those interested in learning more have their first opportunity at IFSEC on Wednesday, June 17. There will be a presentation on PaS in the Safe Cities Academy at 11am, and a participation event with the existing team at the BSIA stand (B1350) at 2.30pm.
If interested in receiving regular updates from the PaS initiative, register for the Police and Security Community Network, an online hub for information sharing and weekly updates also on display at the BSIA stand at IFSEC; or you can register online at www.disc-net.org/pas.
