SI Editor's View: False alarms, commuting, and supermarket cops

18 Nov 09

Security Installer editor Alan Hyder examines the huge drop in false alarms in recent times, police in the aisles, middle class shoplifters, and more, in his regular column...

It was the shame of the security world. Alarm installers would skulk red-faced into the darkest corners at the mere mention of the words.

Excuses would fly… unreliable equipment, customer ignorance, dropped on their head as a baby...

Well, who could own up to such a limp performance?

Yes, I speak of the dreaded “false alarm figures”.

What a joke it was. So notorious that the installation sector even came up with its own thriving social club to commemorate the remarkable ‘fact’ that 98 per cent of alarms were false.

Figures apart, I’ve spent some of the best nights ever in this industry at events staged by the 98% Club, a social club for installers.

The name may have been an ironic joke to begin with, but many of its members were responsible for helping knock the alarms sector into shape.

Alarm installers may have been spurred on by the ominous figure of ACPO snapping at their vitals.

But it was the installers themselves who got their act together and started demanding better training via the colleges and more reliable kit.

Now, a good few years on, post-ACPO Policy, post-DD243, we get increasingly good news about the false alarm figures – such as this 13.9 per cent reduction in police attendance to false alarms over the past year. What a contrast.

Security’s mojo filter

We all know that the alarms sector, once the mighty giant of electronic security, now plays second fiddle to CCTV.

But this sector does have a sound future, largely guaranteed by the strategic thinking and energy emanating from the BSIA’s Security Systems Sector.

If you need evidence of that, then read this article.

Of course, no dramatic improvements in false alarms could have been made without the crucial role played by the inspectorates and the manufacturers, continually coming up with better, more reliable alarm equipment – nowhere more so than in the wireless sector where contrast with unreliable kit of the past is at its greatest.

So we have a situation today where false alarms are down to just 0.24 per system per year (ACPO latest figures).

No, I don’t see how you can have 0.24 per cent of a false alarm either, but you get the idea.

But what has really made the difference?

According to Edward Lister of the BSIA Security Systems Section, it’s the monitoring centres and their filtering out role.

Look out for his article in the December edition of Security Installer and later online at info4security.com.

Checkout this

I’ve written before about the cardboard cut out policemen in supermarket entrances that seem, mysteriously, to have a curbing effect on shoplifters.

Why no force has gotten into cardboard policing big time is a mystery to me.

If the light fingered get the subconscious message “We’re watching you”, and it works, bobbies-in-board are a pretty cost effective, entry-level deterrent.

And low maintenance, with just a rub down every now and again.

More expensive, but probably even more effective, would be miniature, monitored CCTV cameras mounted in their beady eye sockets.

But before I get carried away, I read that Tesco is taking this supermarket cop thing a step further by throwing open its doors to real live police officers to help them get “closer to the community”.

Customers are being invited to have “coffee with a copper” at their in-store cafes.

Get your shopping then tell the officer what, or who, needs to be sorted out in your area.

Sounds a good idea to me. Local knowledge is invaluable to the force and a friendly chat over a hot drink will do wonders for the police’s image locally.

No doubt a police car outside and a sharp-eyed cop sipping tea inside will also have a deterrent effect on shoplifters – and be a reassuring presence for the elderly.

“Officer, could you reach that garlic and basil pasta sauce on the top shelf?”

“All in a day’s work, ma’am.”

Bizarrely, in this cosying up process, Tesco stores will also “offer shifts to special constables who are out of work”.

It also says in the original press release sent to me that “hungry police officers out on the beat will be able to pick up a tasty hot meal in staff rooms, subsidised by Tesco”.

Every PC helps.

One must steal

Getting closer to the police is a wise move for retailers in light of the latest retail crime figures.

Despite the recession, “middle class shoplifters” are unwilling to give up their “luxury lifestyles” according to the report, so are turning to theft.

In its 2009 Global Retail Theft Barometer, Checkpoint Systems says we have a new breed of thief who is trying to sustain an upmarket standard of living by stealing higher value goods like “cosmetics, perfume and face creams, alcohol, fresh meat …”

Forget pink track-suited mums with Croydon facelifts.

Security officers should now be on the lookout for well preserved, nice smelling women, showing a shifty interest in the Dom Perignon and Kobe beef steak.

Credit where it’s due

I know it sounds a bit like the old “Men flying in a machine? Gadzooks Sir! It’s against God’s will”-type of thing, but I remember having a conversation with a colleague about 15 years ago along the lines of: “One day everyone will have their own phones, even children”.

Oh how we laughed.

Who could have imagined that mobile phones would become so ubiquitous?

Now, you can have no food, no nothin’, not even a roof over your head, but you must have a cell phone.

Iraqi refugee families in Syria will “receive a text message on their mobiles” providing a code enabling them to cash in “virtual vouchers” at government shops – perishable items that can’t usually be included in food aid baskets, such as cheese and eggs.

It is believed to be the first time mobiles have been used in such a way.

An innovative and admirable idea, if I may say.

The next time you’re sitting near some loud mouthed idiot sharing their pathetic social lives with the rest of the train via their phone, remember, although mobiles can sometimes be annoying they can also save lives.

Off the rails

Ah yes, the pleasures of commuting: the delicious smell of piping hot chicken and chips, the tinkling chimes of the empty beer cans rolling across the floor, the fascinating territorial hissing from the young wildlife at the end of the carriage …

According to one survey I received last week, “Brits waste 4.6 million hours a day commuting”.

Understandably, 62 per cent of commuters want to reduce time spent travelling to and from work.

No wonder many businesses are turning to home workers online.

But wait, two days later I receive another survey claiming the opposite … that 70 per cent of businesses are losing more time per week because of “poor network performance” than the average weekly commute.

So what pitiful excuses can network providers come up with? Leaves on the broadband? A shortage of network drivers? The late running of a previous email?

Is it any wonder many companies do not have a set policy on home workers?