We ignore what they say at our peril, were the parting words from Prof Martin Gill at the end of his 100th OSPAs thought leadership webinar this afternoon, after two ex-offenders, K and Andy, talked about how and why they went into a life of crime, and why they gave it up.
As Martin said at the start of the session, what offenders have to say about security is interesting and under-used as a way of improving security. “Because in my experience when I speak to offenders they are very, very good at pointing out security weaknesses.” K and Andy are two of the ex-thieves that Martin arranges to go stealing with, on behalf of retailers, as a kind of penetration testing. Then – after giving back the goods stolen – the ex-offenders explain how and why they did it, and staff can get involved to give ideas about how to prevent theft. Often retailers do have security in place; but more needs to be done, to make it work.
The men are experienced in analysing risk, when they go to steal; some security measures that retailers may think of as big, do not bother them. They gave the example of the ‘podium’, the semi-covert, semi-overt CCTV monitoring desk by the entrance of some supermarkets. The operator might look at someone as a possible shoplifter; but what if that were a decoy and a fellow shoplifter could meanwhile carry out a £300 receipt fraud?! For that security officer at the podium cannot be in more than one place at once; and has to respond to alarms or may be called away. Besides suggesting that retailers use the video and other security tech that they already have, ‘a little bit better’, they revealed that they don’t like to be spoken to by staff – even if staff are offering customers service; because that shows that the thieves have been noticed.
Besides, both men agreed that prison was a ‘university of crime’. Young offenders, in K’s experience, were more stand-offish; but later prison became ‘more like a school’. For Andy too, in prison over tea he was able to share stories.
K and Andy were in prison from their teenage days; and were in and out of prison. From their experience, prison is no deterrent; nor is there any rehabilitation: “It’s literally a revolving door,” as K put it. That said, prison did loom large in the conversation. K said that he would ‘hate the thought of seeing a prison cell tomorrow; I don’t think I have got another long prison sentence in me’. Andy was ‘just glad to be out of prison’, while K recalled that he was in Belmarsh in London, and was struck by the number of ’18 to 20-year-old kids’, doing life sentences, ‘with 20 year tariffs, 30 year tariffs’. “I think the rehabilitation now is worse than it’s ever been. I have seen some very intelligent young kids doing 30 years before they have got anywhere.”
Why then have they turned away from crime? Sheer age, it sounded like. K said that he was 47 now: “I know better.” Crime used to be lucrative for both men. K recalled that he would go into an (unnamed) store chain in the late 1990s and into the 2000s and make £700 from what he was doing (exploiting the refund policy). Andy going back to the early 1990s was doing cheque book and card fraud, cashing cheques, probably for £1000 a day; and when burgling typically detached, affluent country properties in the morning would make £700 or £800 in a couple of hours: “You treat it like a job.”
When asked what advice each ex-offender would give to their 14-year-old selves, Andy replied: “Stay at school … I say to my children, get your qualifications, even if you can’t see the point of them. Which I am sure every teenager goes through.” Arguably the most depressing thing of all from the webinar – apart from each man’s story of a lack of a male role model in childhood and lack of opportunity – was that they felt opportunities were even less nowadays, the younger generation, let alone for those without qualifications; or even with them; and Andy felt that even crime was less lucrative.
Could anything have stopped them going into crime as young men – neither came from a family where crime was common? K replied: “To be honest, no, the money was too much of a draw.” Again, had he been worried about getting caught? No; ‘you have to put that to the back of your mind, otherwise you would look worried’, and that might prompt others to look at him suspiciously. Andy, likewise, was not worried about getting caught; for someone who left school with zero qualifications, and went through a ‘short sharp shock’ youth detention that took away his respect for authority, there was no other way to provide for his young family than crime.
The men did crime then, for practical reasons; neither had much time for a question that asked whether violence and crime on TV had an effect. If you watch something on TV, K pointed out, you still have to have the nerve and do it.
Martin Gill promised that the webinars will continue past 100; next week’s are as usual on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, about ‘agile security and anticipating the unknown’ and ‘the role of security in protecting employees when out and about’ respectively. You can sign up to attend for free at the OSPAs website, and listen to past webinars. Visit https://theospas.com/thought-leadership-webinars/.
