Are the homeless a security issue? is a question posed in the March 2019 print issue of Professional Security magazine, writes editor Mark Rowe. Pictured; rough sleeper in Manchester city centre.
While the homeless, in recent years increasingly visible in British towns of all sorts and sizes, are social and indeed a moral question for the country in general, for retailers and other town centre businesses, already struggling for trade with the competition of the internet, the homeless and beggars and the anti-social may be reasons putting off shoppers. Hence some towns are looking to Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs). Critics say that such orders – which have replaced ASBOs as introduced in the 2000s – criminalise people for being homeless, and only displace problems, or don’t get to the root of what is causing aggressive begging, or anti-social behaviour.
As ever we cover the British Isles and the entire private security sector, whether specifiers and consultants, security managers, or installers and manufacturers of security products. We interview Mike Bluestone the past chairman of the Security Institute who still takes an ambassadorial interest in the Chartered Security Professional (CSyP) certification, that he tells us is the ‘gold standard’ for people in security in the UK and indeed overseas.
We are also in London to meet the new chief executive of the consultancy Risk Advisory Group. We take the train to Stoke-on-Trent to visit the security monitoring control room of one of the largest names in construction, that also have a significant enough security operation to be a member of the SIA’s approved contractor scheme.
We feature recruitment and a campaign to give fair opportunities to ex-offenders; and data protection, as the first anniversary nears of the 2018 Data Protection Act, bringing the European Union-wide general data protection regulation (GDPR) into UK law.
Plus many of the usual features such as a book review page, four pages of new products and services, four pages of ‘spending the budget’, contributor Una Riley reporting from the FM contractor Carlisle Support Services’s ‘Innovation Lab 2019’ in Liverpool for staff and customers, and Roy Cooper’s gossip column for manufacturers and distributors.
You can read the magazine and other recent issues at the ‘magazine‘ part of the website. To request a sample print copy email [email protected].
