cameras are being introduced to provide evidence from front line policing and improve officer safety during detention of suspects and incidents.
But what of the future? How can we continue to make the safest City in the world even safer? Technology advances at pace, and the City has the potential to implement the most advanced technological security.
Steel Ringof City of London’s The technology currently in place is still very much CCTV and ANPR. In some cases
some of the equipment in place when first reviewed was 20
years old and no longer compliant with national standards. Traffic movements
and the City of London Corporation have taken the concept of the Ring of Steel forward in many aspects, as technological advancements have been made and new approaches to policing have developed.
The CoLP has been at the forefront of many Counter Terrorism policing developments, including the enhancement of the Ring of Steel concept, armed vehicle checkpoints and, more recently, the development testing and introduction of new policing tactics under Project Servator, to deter terrorism and detect crime. Servator has now been adopted by other national police forces and was deployed widely at the Commonwealth Games in Scotland.
Our role is to protect the City and its population from terrorism and crime. This is achieved through the gathering, collection and sound analytical use of intelligence to disrupt and prevent criminal activity and deter terrorism.
© CI TY S ECURI TY MAGAZ INE – AUTUMN 2015
within the Square Mile have changed over time and some cameras were therefore in the wrong place, and in some cases absent in areas of new need. A ‘risk and harm’ based approach was applied to the CCTV positioning of the cameras across the City in order to maximise the potential of the technology available in our fight against crime and terrorism. Every camera was also assessed against strict privacy guidelines as set out in law.
CoLP has also invested in and has introduced, or is currently developing, the following:
Mobile ANPR is now installed in all of our police cars to provide instantaneous alerts of a suspect vehicle that has entered the City. The Ring of Steel now has a ‘steely core’ operating within the City boundaries.
Streaming of video to officers’ tablets and smart phones is about to go live, with a facility under development for video to be streamed back to the police control room from the officers themselves. Body-worn
www. c i t y s e cur i t yma ga z ine . com
Implementing new systems found in areas across the globe, the City could be at the forefront of securing an entire financial district using the most advanced systems. The current Ring of Steel still has a mix of both digital and analogue cameras in place. To take the Ring of Steel to the next level we need to introduce a fully digitalised system, not just the cameras but also the network that will need to carry, manage and store the visual data. This is essential if we are to introduce new analytical systems such as facial recognition, behavioural detection or any other developments of the future as they come on line. We could also have the capability of linking up wholesale with third- party cameras across the City, connected to a centralised solution through Internet Protocol connectivity with a fast fibre and wireless network, which would benefit city businesses and partners as a whole through an entirely integrated system.
But, taking the Ring of Steel forward will always come at a cost and will certainly not be cheap. CoLP, along with every other Police Force within the UK, continues to face year on year cuts to its budget in these times of austerity. At a time of reduced resource the need to invest in technology to support everyday policing becomes more imperative. However, the limited availability of funding to do just that makes it extremely difficult to achieve.
The possibility and opportunity to take the Ring of Steel to the next dimension exists, the funding doesn’t, unless we can find alternative funding streams to realise the future vision. The Ring of Steel could provide advanced world-class security around one of the UK’s most important assets, the City of London, but at the moment it is just a concept. The current system provides sound, stable and effective protection but it could be so much more. That is a challenge that we should face as the City of London, and the UK, deserves it.
Commander Wayne Chance City of London Police
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