Case Studies

Private policing part two: Hampstead

by Mark Rowe

The efforts by some Hampstead residents to pay for extra policing for themselves has made the news because it raises questions for all of us, not only those providing policing-style services, writes Mark Rowe.

Just as it’s ironic that Frinton – one of the quietest places you could wish to find in England – has become a pioneer of private on-street policing, so it may seem odd that Hampstead – leafy, long home to the intellectual and wealthy – is seeking more police, even if it has to pay more. In either place, as anywhere, fear of crime is not only about the actual offences, but about perception of risk, and changes in offending. The organiser of a crowd-funding effort – seeking £600k to fund three more police for three years – Jessica Learmond-Criqui told the local TV station London Live that Hampstead is the first community to seek what has so far been available only to business improvement districts (BID) or a council: under the Met Patrol Plus scheme, a buy one, get one free (BOGOF, as in retail) of one police officer from the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) for each one paid for. As the South Bank BID, which has its own security officers, puts it, the paid-for police would ‘blend problem solving and direct enforcement activity’, for instance against aggressive beggars, unlicensed street traders and the anti-social – the very sort of people aimed at by the Conservative Government’s new public space protection orders (PSPOs), last featured in the December 2015 print issue of Professional Security.

Jessica Learmond-Criqui was asked what were the implications for wider policing. She said: “I am confident that when other communities actually find out that this scheme [Met Patrol Plus] is possible for them, they will want to follow suit. I don’t think it is a question of two-tier policing.”

As that last comment suggested, two-tier policing – that you get a better, faster police response if you pay extra – is precisely what some fear. While Frinton has its private contractor AGS doing patrols, Hampstead is looking to pay for police to do what some might see as more suited to a private guardforce – deterring crime, and displacing it (to other parts of London?!). Ironically, in 1935 some householders in north London clubbed together to employ guards to protect their property at night. The uniformed officers were looked after by a company, called Night Watch Services Limited. In 1939 its Hampstead branch became Night Guards Limited, which became Securicor; which on merging with Group 4 in the 2000s became the S in the multi-national G4S.

As that neat little story suggests, the choice for paying for extra security is not only between a private firm and the public sector, but between a local and national provider, with each coming with pros and cons.

Certainly businesses and public-private spaces such as shopping malls and university campuses have long weighed up the choice of rent-a-cops (to be crude) and private security. The choice may depend on price (under that Mopac Met Patrol Plus scheme, a constable will cost you £64,000 a year); or what impression you want to give out to users of the space (would a police officer reassure, or put off shoppers, or students?); or what are the roles and responsibilities (while police officers have the power of arrest, are they the best for the job, if you don’t want truants or beggars arrested – which for one thing will take the officer off the beat for hours doing the paperwork and going to the custody suite – but merely moved on?). The community support officers (PCSOs) came in under Labour in the early 2000s (as did local government wardens, for a while) precisely because a one size fits all, constable with a power of arrest, approach did not suit every UK policing requirement.

To fit private security into that landscape, under the Police Reform Act 2002 came the Community Safety Accreditation Scheme (CSAS). Typically, CSAS-accredited staff work for a council; or housing association; or contract guardforce. Some CSAS training may go further afield, to public space CCTV operators, for instance, so they know what the CSAS staff they monitor can and cannot do. While some police forces have embraced CSAS more than others, all those accredited are vetted and trained, and the applications are similar. To take the contract security guards at the Cabot Circus shopping mall in central Bristol for example, over the road as it happens from the venue for the ST15 conference in April 2015. They can issue ‘fixed penalty notices’ (fines by ticket) to children drinking alcohol; and they have the power to stop cyclists on footpaths, make under 18s surrender alcohol; ask an offender to give their name and address; give a ‘fixed penalty notice’ (a fine by ticket) to those doing graffiti or being disorderly.

Neighbourhood wardens are getting similar powers; in Horsham and Crawley, to take Sussex as an example. So are universities’ night security staff, such as Plymouth and Brighton. CSAS marshals are common at football clubs or sports or event venues generally such as Epsom and Beaulieu, Wembley and Twickenham, to manage traffic in and out. And as for BIDs, Victoria BID in central London has CSAS security staff working for Land Securities in the area around Cardinal Place. Plymouth Against Retail Crime (Parc) is to have ‘rangers’ from the local company Axien Security patrolling the city centre (pictured), paid for by the BID.

Ian Warmington, Parc crime manager, said, “The rangers will patrol the city centre, controlled by the CCTV team, who are looking for incidents, and will send the rangers to deal with them. They will deal with people committing anti-social behaviour and they can detain offenders until police arrive. They will all wear body cameras, so any problems are recorded and the evidence can be used in court.” Another side of CSAS is intelligence-sharing with police. In Plymouth’s case, Parc has some 30 exclusion notices, typically against shop thieves and the anti-social.

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