Technology, big data, digitisation and artificial intelligence will make life more difficult for criminals, says the multi-national security contractor Securitas in its latest annual report. Alf Göransson, pictured, stepping down after 11 years as Securitas’ President and CEO, said: “In the past, security officers have only been able to react to incidents that have already occurred. By applying modern technology, intelligence and know-how to the data we receive, we can now prevent crimes from ever happening.”
As in previous reports, the company has stressed how in the past decade, the security industry has undergone what it terms ‘a major transformation’. Likewise the Swedish firm has moved from manned security to integrated security with use of technology, ‘to turn predictive security into intelligent security’, Göransson said. “This will be enabled by reporting, analysing and using large volumes of data and leveraging the largely unutilised database we have at our customers’ sites. Using both historical and real-time data generated by our security officers, as well as equipment such as sensors and cameras at the sites, combined with external crime and incident data sources, we will be able to create the optimal basis for the most professional risk assessments.”
The new president and CEO is Magnus Ahlqvist, who will remain as Divisional President, Security Services Europe during 2018. He spoke in similar vein: “We will be able to work smarter and create better security and safety for our customers by identifying what is needed to prevent crimes before they actually happen.”
That said, the firm reports that manned guarding is still the most widely used security service globally. It accounts for most of the total private security services sales: 55 percent in 2017. With some 345,000 employees in 55 countries, manned guarding also
remains the backbone of Securitas’ business; and the firm foresees ‘rapid growth’ in manned guarding in urban ’emerging markets’ such as in Africa and Asia.
Besides remote video guarding (where the firm has a partnership with Axis Communications), Securitas offers fire and safety services, and corporate risk management.
The Security Services Europe arm of the firm has some 120,500 employees, and last year an operating margin of 5.6 per cent. For the annual report in full visit the Securitas website.
