NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH


COME RAIN OR SHINE, SECURITY MUST REMAIN A PRIORITY


It’s a question that often gathers a fair bit of speculation – do the seasons affect crime rates? And if so, what do facilities managers need to be aware of during each season to ensure their sites are secure?


You may assume that the summer months - with windows left ajar and warmer nights - are perfect for opportune intruders. For others it may be the long, dark nights of winter that seem to be prime time for break-ins.


At the Farsight Observatory, we monitor the CCTV cameras, intruder alarms and security systems of businesses across the UK. As a result, we continuously gather data on the frequency of intrusions at the sites we monitor and gain a broad view of the levels of property crime they are experiencing.


The statistics recently revealed a peak in incidents during the spring months of March, April and May in 2014. In fact, the number of incidents was 46% higher in spring compared to the earlier winter, resulting in an average of two incidents per site.


Incidents are classified as when a ‘suspicious activity’ has been observed, either when a crime has taken place or when the activity could lead to a crime. Hence, each ‘incident’ could potentially have cost sites thousands of pounds in criminal damage, if our operators hadn’t acted so quickly to alert the police and warn-off the intruders.


So with these statistics in mind, can we assume that in spring facilities managers need to be extra vigilant towards their security? To some extent, the answer is yes. There are several factors relating to the maintenance of security systems that


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facilities managers need to make a priority during March, April and May.


To start with, Daylight Saving Time starts in March and that means the time settings on your security systems will need to be updated. This is crucial to security. If the time on CCTV footage is incorrect when an incident does occur, it could potentially be dismissed as evidence in court.


“THROUGHOUT 2014 BUSINESSES


EXPERIENCED 51,585 INCIDENTS OF ROBBERY.”


Fast growing foliage must also be maintained and cut well back from CCTV cameras. As the weather starts to warm up, foliage will grow quickly and could potentially obstruct the view of cameras, whilst also causing false alarms.


These seasonal factors are important but, on the other hand, it’s clear that businesses experience crime year- round. In April 2015, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) released a report stating that throughout 2014 businesses experienced 51,585 incidents of robbery.


The Commercial Victimisation Survey (CVS) for 2014 also highlighted that in the wholesale and retail industry for every 1,000 premises there were


199 incidents of robbery (including attempted robbery).


It’s clear that security measures need to be in place all year round for the protection of facilities and businesses across the UK. Our statistics back up the ONS and CVS results as in 2014 each site we monitored experienced an average of six incidents.


Some property crimes are more ‘evergreen’, as opposed to opportune burglaries or robberies that may take place due to because of seasonal changes,


For example, inside jobs occur at any time of year. Previously, our operators dealt with an incident that involved intruders breaking into a car forecourt and once having gained access to the site, they located and removed a safe within 11 minutes – a suspiciously short amount of time, to us perhaps suggesting ‘insider knowledge’. Thankfully, our operators responded immediately to alarms from the site, resulting in all four perpetrators being arrested.


On a larger scale, experts are also speculating whether the Hatton Garden raids were the results of an inside job.


All together, it’s clear that security is a necessity year round, whether to protect sites from seasonal fluctuations in criminal activity or to offer security against crimes that can occur at any time of year.


www.farsight.co.uk twitter.com/TomorrowsFM


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