It’s no secret that Southampton, and the country at large, is under constant surveillance. In fact, we have the most CCTV systems per capita of any country in the world. So, what effect is our heavy surveillance having on crime statistics throughout the UK and specifically Southampton? We’ve taken a look at some statistics to understand better how our surveillance is impacting crime. We’ve also put some thought into how CCTV systems can be used in conjunction with other security systems. Will the use of other security measures help to reduce the amount of crime on Southampton’s streets?
Issues with CCTV systems
Naturally, we’re proud supporters of CCTV systems and are proud of how our systems work to reduce crime, however, there are some limitations. CCTV is impacted by the following:
Location
Primarily, location is the most important aspect of CCTV systems. Placing CCTV in places where there are ‘blind spots’ will allow criminals to take advantage of the fact that they aren’t being watched.
Crime Type
CCTV is more effective in the prevention of some crimes than others. Vehicular crime is often deterred completely by the presence of CCTV. It also has a positive effect on theft. CCTV’s effect on violent crime is more limited due to its often ‘heat of the moment’ nature.
Other Methods in Partnership
Finally, CCTV works best when it’s used in tandem with other crime prevention methods. Whether these are methods implemented by the police in Southampton or a security company, it can’t be argued that increased security methods improve the effectiveness of CCTV. An increase in physical police presence or using a security company for manned guarding or access control will make the use of CCTV as a deterrent more effective.
Find out more about manned guarding!
With these limitations in mind, let’s take a look at the crime statistics for Southampton as a whole.
Southampton: Crime Statistics
According to Police.uk, Southampton has the second highest crime rate of any city in Hampshire other than Portsmouth and is significantly higher than the county average. This makes sense, however, as Southampton is the second most populous city in Hampshire. What’s more alarming is Southampton’s status within the rest of the UK. Southampton rests comfortably above Derby, Reading, Luton, Gloucester, Slough, Hounslow, Cardiff, Eastbourne, Plymouth, Northampton, Bristol, Leeds and Newcastle upon Tyne. The data bounds for these crime statistics list the upper bound at 36.29. Southampton clocks in at 44.18. Clearly, Southampton’s crime statistics are worrying for such a relatively small city. So, how can CCTV be used to drop these damning statistics?
CCTV systems and the effect on crime statistics
According to the College of Policing, a higher level of focus needs to be paid to the location of CCTV. The College of Policing summarises a longer report that yielded the following results.
Car Parks
Six separate UK studies showed a statistically significant decrease in vehicular theft and other vehicle-related crime when CCTV systems were operating in car parks. The number of crimes dropped by an astonishing 51%.
City and Town Centres
The results of the study on city and town centres found a small, not statistically significant reduction in crime. As the reduction was not statistically significant it’s impossible to draw concrete conclusions about its effectiveness. When 15 UK city centres were analysed there was a decrease of 10% in crime.
Public Housing Estates
CCTV in public housing estates yielded a small drop in crime statistics. However, while some estates benefited from the CCTV, the results for other estates stayed the same or yielded ambiguous results.
Public Transport
4 studies on the effectiveness of CCTV on public transport combined showed that on the London underground there was a 23% reduction in crime. However, the CCTV systems were particularly effective in the London boroughs. For the rest of the UK, the findings are more ambiguous.
Recommended Reading: Crime Statistics You Need To Know About
How to make CCTV systems have more of an impact in Southampton?
In order to make CCTV systems have more of an impact on Southampton’s crime statistics, we must take steps to combine the cameras with other security measures. All of the studies looked at by the College of Policing noted that all of the most effective uses of CCTV systems had coupled the cameras with other safety measures. These include better lighting and increased physical presence around the area. CCTV is designed to work as part of a larger strategic approach.
Another thing to consider is that CCTV, while it is a valuable deterrent is not JUST a deterrent. The studies looked at did not consider CCTV’s role in catching and bringing criminals to prosecution. While CCTV may not have prevented the crime from happening, it makes it far more likely that those responsible face justice for their crimes.
Contact us for CCTV systems and other security solutions
If you’re interested in investing in CCTV systems for your place of business, or other security solutions to ensure that you and your staff feel safe at your place of work, get in touch today! We offer a free site survey to ensure that your CCTV is being used to its potential and to let you know of any areas that are in need of extra security measures.
A human presence on your vacant property, construction site or business premises is an ideal way to deter any would-be intruders and de-escalate situations. Manned guarding is crucial for a number of reasons. This post will explore some of the facts about manned guarding.
What is Manned Guarding?
Manned guarding simply means that you have humans (and dog handlers if required) patrolling and monitoring your property in case of criminal activity. Manned guarding is proven to prevent a lot of break-ins, vandalism and theft.
It also offers a heightened feeling of security for your staff and customers. Having a trained professional on hand in case of an emergency can be extremely comforting.
Are There Different Types of Manned Guarding?
In short, yes. You can opt for a guard who will be present from 9-5 each day, during working hours, or a highly trained guard that’s on site 24 hours a day. The type of manned guarding you opt for depends on your business’ needs.
What Can Manned Guards Do?
While manned guards are highly trained in de-escalating situations and will monitor your business, it is important to remember that they are not the police. If your business is a shop, for example, and a guard catches a shoplifter, they are allowed to use a reasonable amount of force to detain the person. Arresting that person, however, is up to the police.
Security guards in the United Kingdom are required to have been licensed by the Security Industry Authority. Ensure that any guards you hire are registered with this authority.
Contact us for Manned Guarding
For more information about our manned guarding, or any of our other security solutions, please get in touch. We are always willing to help you to better protect your business.
Unlike alarms or security cameras, mobile patrols offer a physical presence, making them great at deterring potential criminals. In this post, we discuss the advantages of mobile patrols and how they can save your business money and time. In 2017, we have seen the largest annual increase in crime in a decade – there has never been a better time to invest in the proper security for your business.
Incredibly Flexible Security
One of the key features of these patrols is how quickly and frequently they can be changed to suit your convenience. Mobile patrols without strict routines and patterns help to deter criminals, as they cannot plan their trespassing to suit a time when the guards will not be around. If criminals are unable to plan their activities around the routines of security guards, it makes it much more difficult for them to trespass and most will not take the risk.
Learn more about mobile patrols
Mobile Patrols Let You Keep an Eye on An Area
Ideal for the business owner with a number of properties, mobile patrols will offer protection to an entire area. As a business owner, you can team up with other nearby business owners to ensure that everyone’s buildings are protected.
Move Quickly
By combining patrols, alarms, cameras and other security measures, you can ensure an immediate and comprehensive response to any emergency. Guards can move either by foot or by car, meaning that they will arrive at an emergency situation in time to catch the people involved and stop the situation from escalating further.
A Range of Checks
Unlike cameras or alarms, mobile patrols are not limited to their senses. Guards are able to carry out a range of checks, ensuring that everything is locked up properly, and patrolling areas that cannot be reached by CCTV systems alone.
Deter Future Crimes
Mobile patrols are highly effective at deterring any future crimes. The continued presence of trained security guards on a premises makes it unlikely that criminals will try to trespass. Manned security guards will not just respond to emergencies, they will prevent them from happening.
Cost-Effective
Guards patrolling your buildings means that you’re unlikely to incur surprise costs as a result of vandalism and theft. Also, as mobile patrols are so flexible, you can tailor your security guards to suit your business’ budget.
Community Spirit
As mobile patrols consist of human beings, a physical security presence will likely make your neighbours feel secure as well. Therefore, a manned security presence can benefit not just your business but the wider community as well.
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CCTV technology is incredible these days with quality HD facial recognition software and CCTV installation is difficult for some. CCTV with internet connectivity can instantly upload images to the main security database making short work of most criminal efforts. But only if you know where to place the CCTV camera.
In order to get the best from your CCTV system, you need to think where to place it first. This is the best way to get maximum security for your business. Installing CCTV cameras is relatively easy but there are a few things you need to consider beforehand. Making sure they are installed right is of vital importance to your business.
5 Tips For Quality CCTV Installation
1) Look for blind spots
You can measure the line of sight of where you want to place your CCTV camera and eliminate any blind spots. By doing a thorough risk assessment on your premises you minimise the chance of professional criminals exploiting any security weaknesses and protect your business. Make sure you test it thoroughly as CCTV cameras often need concise placements for maximum range.
2) Testing
Once you have things up and running test the system throughout. There are many reasons to get adequate sharp image intensity and also to check for the blind spots as mentioned above. It just makes sense to evaluate the performance of your system once you have done all the hard work to get the best results. Pan, tilt and zoom functions all need to be enabled for better visual quality.
3) Wires
Make sure your wiring is secure and tamper-proof. You don’t want criminals assuming you are using dummy cameras either as that can affect the health of your business in more ways than you can realise. Ideally a professionally installed camera is best as it won’t undermine your business, making it look like a shoddy operation. You don’t want customers and clients thinking you don’t know what you’re doing in regards to safety.
4) Weatherproof
It’s also important to consider geological aspects and areas in your premises that might be affected by weather. Quality image content can obviously be affected by sporadic weather trends so it would be smart to get to know consistent weather patterns in the region your business is located in. A Weatherproof thermographic PoE camera would thrive better also.
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5) Signs and Regulations
One you have CCTV displayed at your business, you need to declare it for legal purposes. Signposting is a great way to permanently communicate this but also will help deter some low-level opportunist amateur criminals. You also need to adhere to certain guidelines under the Data Protection Act.
With over 20 thousands vacant properties arising over the last six months, squatting can be a serious problem. It could be even more problematic for a local business. If unwanted intruders successfully use ‘Squatters rights’ to gain legal residence at your property then, there’s not much you can do about it. It is, therefore, a serious concern for security companies in Southampton.
However, it’s not all bad news. Consider the great results from Veritech security response team last week when they foiled an organised attempt to invade a vacant but privately owned property in the Kingston area.
Thanks to the excellent use of wireless solar perimeter alarms, the Veritech team were able to spot multiple zone activations from the intruders who thought they had the upper hand. Unfortunately for them, the professionally trained and highly alert security staff at Veritech really did their homework, thwarting them at every turn.
The Incident Report
A Veritech staff report confirmed the concise and highly professional protocol that was key to the success of the operation:
“We had multiple zone activations on a void property that we look after. Following the pattern of activations, we were able to distinguish rough figures of a number of people that were on site and were able to track their moves. The response was dispatched immediately and the Police were called on a 999. Response and police arrived on site at the same time and found that the intruders had fitted their own padlock and chains around the site gates. Our drivers cut the new locks off to gain entry and found a notice of intent to squat. “
The cheeky intruders even made a last chance attempt to take control of the property by leaving a notice of intent to squat but the High Court bailiffs advised that the section notice did not apply in these circumstances, probably due to the professional protocol the Veritech staff conducted themselves with. This left the Veritech response team free to retain the property. The intruders were escorted off site and Veritech immediately set about securing the property with excellent security guard techniques.
An excellent result from the team in what is likely to be a challenging situation for most. According to director Paul Oldridge, the Veritech team deter several attempts a month using remote voice systems. So it’s not the first time.
How Security Companies Can Protect Your Data
If you work in a security company in Southampton, when you hear the term ‘data protection’ it can set off alarm bells. Some may think of ‘banks or stockbrokers, sweating over losing the names and addresses of customers. You may even read how online cyber thieves have stolen customer details from a mobile phone company. You might not even think this is a real security issue in the Southampton construction industry? You probably think you only have to worry about guarding warehouses and building sites, making sure supplies and tools are not stolen. You might choose to focus on a threat that is something simple, something that you can see in front of you?
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Well, data protection is something that affects every business these days. The rise of cybercrime and confidential details is big business for some and even the construction industry is now involved. The details of construction industry workers have been of interest to certain parties for a while now. So it is definitely in your interest to safeguard confidential data of all kinds. Did you know that 1 in 6 construction companies have been affected by cyber crime? Now the construction industry is waking up to the benefits of being I.T. savvy in general. New ways of protecting your business against cyber criminals will become more and more important.
The 5 Best Ways to Protect Confidential Data
1) Protect Passwords
Don’t write passwords down on your hand or anywhere they can be seen. That’s just pointless. If you do have to write them on a slip of paper then conceal it as best as possible. The actual password you choose should also be clever too. Don’t use something obvious that is known about you like a family member or pet. Try and add some random letters to it as well, something important to you but not something like a birthday. Think of it this way, if a complete stranger can guess your password by looking at your wallet or desk then it’s no good.
2) Paper storage
The world may be run by electronic data now but there are some circumstances where many businesses still have to keep files in paper format. In some industries, regulations require that all raw data be kept for a minimum of 3 years. So think about places like safes, fireproof locked cabinets or even secret drawers. As a long time serving security company in Southampton we know it is important to make sure that protocols are set in place. So keep keys hidden and have a backup in case one is lost in an emergency. A good keyholding service is vital in these days of identity theft.
Find out more about key holding services
3) Detachable media
A desktop or laptop computer is as much a liability as an unguarded safe if someone has the expertise to get access to confidential data. A lot of businesses store their data in detachable hard drives or USB sticks that can be carried from location to location. These can be encrypted but also need to be stored safely. The same principles apply to paper storage as these devices can probably be compromised but only if they are obtained.
4) Locking computer screens
Many high profile company offices always make sure employees lock their computer screens when not in use. Even if you need a swipe card to get into the building. This is because people called tailgaters often gain access to a building by following people in to obtain confidential data for the sole aim of identity fraud. You can also set your computer to lock out automatically if someone is away from their desk for a set amount of time i.e. a break or lunch where they have forgotten to lock out. It is important for security personnel to be aware of this fact as well.
5) Data Destruction
The job of protecting confidential data isn’t over when you are ready to dispose of it. Far from it in fact. The retaining and securing of data is one thing but destroying it is a different thing altogether. There are many ways of safely destroying confidential data from shredding it down to secure bin disposal services. The main thing is to act cautiously because any sensitive information should not be in a position where it can be obtained so easily.
The urgent truth of the matter is that every security company should be alert to the importance of keeping your online security tight.