News

When choosing a venue for your Christmas party, don’t just focus on the menu and the décor. No matter how good a venue’s first impression, the night can still go terribly if there is inadequate security on site. Unfortunately, it’s becoming increasingly common for venues to reduce their number of security guards and replace them with stewards. Events that used to be kept safe by teams of professional, trained and licensed security guards are now largely staffed by students doing […]

Black Friday and Cyber Monday have extended the busy winter shopping period further back into the year, placing more demand than ever on warehouses and distribution centres. Not only has online shopping massively increased the scale of logistics and need for secure warehousing, it has also made it far easier for criminals to sell stolen goods. How is a customer on eBay, for example, supposed to be able to identify items that were stolen? And in the run up to […]

Cyber Monday is one of the most important times of the year for online retailers, especially those who sell electronic goods. It’s also one of the most important times of the year for hackers, who take advantage of overwhelmed or vulnerable websites. Worryingly, many companies have expressed disinterest in investing in cyber security as it doesn’t provide a clear return on investment. But if your online store is shut down by a cyber attack during a busy period, such as […]

Black Friday only arrived on our shores at the start of this decade, but it has already become a highlight of the retail calendar. Love it or hate it, Black Friday (and its online cousin, Cyber Monday) is here to stay, and if your business is taking part, you need to prepare your security so that customers and staff are kept safe. Black Friday chaos is not just an American problem Retailers in the UK first started to take part […]

Retail crime has increased by 40% across all categories. Likewise, spending on retail crime prevention has reached an all time high, hitting £1 billion in 2019 – four times 2016’s total. Whether you run a small boutique shop or manage a retail site boasting dozens of stores, you need to make sure that you are spending wisely on security. Here is my advice for how to best protect your retail business from theft, abusive customers and vandalism. Retail CCTV CCTV is […]

The British Retail Consortium’s 2019 annual Retail Crime Survey found very concerning trends, with crime on the rise across all categories, from customer and employee theft to staff abuse and cyber attacks. Retail crime statistics for 2019 Counting direct costs alone, crime cost the retail industry an estimated £900 million per year, up 28% from 2018. This doesn’t include indirect costs such as reduced efficiency, wasted employee time and the emotional and physical consequences of abuse. As a result, spending […]

Department stores, shopping centres, and other large retail sites are the biggest targets for theft in the country and amongst the most challenging sites to secure effectively. Theft prevention in a retail site relies upon being able to quickly identity suspicious individuals, monitor them and take action should they engage in criminal behaviour. This is a relatively simple task in a shop with a few aisles and single entries and exits, but when there are thousands of customers, multiple stores […]

We depend upon care homes to look after those who are most vulnerable. This includes making sure that residents and staff are protected from security threats such as vandalism, theft and abuse. While security guards still have a role in care homes, especially for main entrances and exterior patrols, residents and staff typically prefer less visible forms of security such as CCTV and access control. The benefits of CCTV in care homes Care home security must be designed to protect […]

In one year, 15% of all NHS staff and 28% of nurses experienced physical abuse A 2017 survey of NHS staff in England showed that 15% had experienced physical violence from patients, relatives or the public over a 12 month period. Accident and Emergency wards are amongst the most hard-hit, second only to elderly care in the number of violent incidents reported. Nurses fared the worst, with 28% reporting to have experienced physical abuse within the past 12 months, and […]

It’s no secret that one of the biggest challenges facing the NHS is the difficulty of meeting the increasing demands on health services while government spending struggles to keep pace. A less talked about but serious consequence is the cuts that have been made to security in hospitals and other medical sites. Local authorities are encountering the same issue and – as I wrote in my blog on the matter – a purely price-driven tender process has severe consequences on […]