Fires, murders and mayhem and how to avoid them

Clockwise: Michael Taylor, George Waterfield, Kathryn Ross and Mark McDonald

A fascinating webinar on protecting your assets threw up a whole load of surprising insights and observations from three senior security professionals from Vigilance.

They were hit with a series of situations to deal with, with fascinating examples and pearls of wisdom from a lifetime in security and the military.

The scenarios:

A site near transport links has been abandoned and is for sale. There is a risk of trespass historically, based on intelligence. What is your approach and how do assess the risks? 

A city centre building has disputed ownership. It is earmarked for development and sale long term. How do you you prevent trespass and secure the site ready for clearance?

But also to mitigate fire and flood damage as well as material. 

A development site has some homeless people move in. Gary Neville famously allowed a group of people to spend the winter in a site in Manchester but negotiated with them and in so doing learnt a lot about people experiencing homelessness. Without risking advertising what you’d do, that seems quite risky, but obviously very kind hearted? What steps would you take?

On off centre site has been targeted for a rave. How to you manage the relationships with the police, local authority, instruction of solicitors, to prevent it, and where do the liabilities lie if you don’t if someone gets hurt? 

We also learned why a security has achieved B-Corp status, which is an incredibly rigorous process. I can see why a retailer of fair trade coffee would do this, but why a security company and what difference has it made to the business.

The insights:

Mark McDonald: “It’s so important in security to have all your ducks in a row, everybody thinks about all the other necessary parts of their job, you know, whether it’s IPs or receivers, or property managers, sometimes security gets left to the last moment.

“Our unique service proposition in the industry is can really go a long way to helping your costs, securing your assets.”

Catherine Ross: “We are really proud to stand out as one of if not the only B Corp security company, because we do want to make a positive impact in the world. Our strapline at vigilance is security with integrity. And we’ve always taken our corporate responsibility really seriously. We have a long standing charity partnership, building schools and sanitation projects in Nepal. And it felt like a very natural next step to do this. When you think about security industry, that we can actually have a direct impact on communities and the environment.”

George Waterfield: “Security is a very difficult industry to be in because no one wants to spend money on security. It’s like, I don’t offend any insurance that might be on the on the webinar, but no one wants to spend money on car insurance. You know, it’s something you have to have and suddenly you need so. So when you’re looking at spending money on security, you know, you want to get the whole package. 

“Are they going to manage the site? What are they going to do? How are they going to report to me, what happens if something goes wrong, you really want the whole package rather than just, oh, there’s someone in a high vis vest with a pair of shiny boots.”

 

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