Case Studies

Malcolm Dawson

by Mark Rowe

See the December print edition of Professional Security for more on the recent Protect-ED evening at University College London, hosted by the university accreditation scheme’s patron Baroness Henig. Here we do some social gossiping, because besides UCL people out in force to mark the institution becoming a member of the scheme, quite a number of university security people were there. We were able to catch up with Malcolm Dawson BEM MSyI, the former Head of Security at the University of Leeds.

A long-time member of AUCSO (the Association of University Chief Security Officers), Malcolm was there as the Security Institute’s representative on the advisory board of Protect-ED.

Malcolm, who retired in March 2021, had a distinguished career in the higher education security sector, after his 15 years in North Yorkshire Police. He commenced at Leeds in 1991 as a Security Assistant and held every rank through to Head of Security. His work for student safety was recognised by her Majesty The Queen, in 2015, when he was awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) for services to Higher Education and Students.

A former AUCSO Executive Member, Malcolm later became the International Region Director for the North American-based campus security association IACLEA, which gave him European and international exposure.

Malcolm like so many retired people reports that he is enjoying it – when we asked where he had been, due to his tan, he had just returned from Barbados. But he is as busy as ever. As a football fan, Malcolm is a Vice-President of York City Football Club and is heavily involved in raising funds for the football club, whether via golf days, awards evenings, club dinners, match-day lunches, and the popular annual Christmas draw. For while the Premier League may be full of silly money, in the lower divisions the game still relies on the goodwill of well-wishers and volunteers.

It’s fair to say that York City’s fortunes have been mixed – once a mainstay of the Football League, they are now playing in the Vanarama National League North, and have been for some years. Off the field, however, things look good as they have left their historic city centre home Bootham Crescent for the new LNER Community Stadium at Huntington on the north edge of the city. We can discount that the move was solely so that the ground was nearer Malcolm’s home! But seriously, as the picture shows, it’s as fine a ground as a club could wish for.

Besides football commitments Malcolm is also a founder member of North Yorkshire Crimestoppers. He was proud to tell us that the North Yorkshire Committee had recently won the Crimestoppers Committee of the year award. Crimestoppers is a charity that allows the public to report crime anonymously, whether via the 0800 555 111 freephone line or online. Malcolm stated that Crimestoppers received 46,535 pieces of information this year.

Among Crimestoppers campaigns that may be of especial interest to security managers, the charity offers particular rewards for information about cable thefts (money offered by the phone network firm Openreach) and via the Hidden Harms project, work highlighting to the public the importance of reporting crimes often hidden in plain sight, such as hate crime on football terraces, domestic abuse, and human trafficking.

While Malcolm stated he still has a lot to offer, he still gets itchy feet to get back into the security industry, but is just now looking forward to the run up to the Christmas and New Year period, for once, in many years, free from being ‘on-call’.

All at Professional Security send our very best wishes to Malcolm on a very long and happy retirement. He’s certainly deserved it, but it’s great to see him still using his knowledge and experience in the security industry.

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