Security services bring about decrease in crime at the London 2012 olympics

The London 2012 Olympic Games brought a number of benefits to the capital city. The increase in the interest and participation in sport has been well documented and businesses in the area surrounding Olympic Park have done particularly well during the Olympic Games. One lesser mentioned benefit is the decrease in crime brought around by an increase in the presence of police and security services.

Only 9 people were arrested at Olympics venues during the course of the games, which considering how many people attended is remarkable. The high visibility of staff and other security personnel has played a massive part in deterring would be criminals. Compared to the same week last year, crime in London was down by 5%. Again the presence of police and other security staff all over the city will have played a part.

When this is put into the context that crime across the UK has increased over the last year, it really is remarkable. The high visibility approach taken towards the Olympics really has worked, as it has buckled this trend and seen a decrease in the number of crimes reported. The worry is that after the Olympic and Paralympic Games have finished, when this extra police and security presence has disappeared, London will be left vulnerable to criminals once again.

Whilst large firms will often have security procedures and staff in place, small and medium sized businesses are often lacking in security. At the same time, these businesses are often the most vulnerable to security breaches. If you only have one premises and a large proportion of your stock or equipment is stolen, it may take some time to get back on track, not to mention the loss of income you will no doubt suffer whilst you are waiting for replacements to arrive. For some smaller businesses, this could be enough be enough to put you out of business. Slightly larger businesses may find themselves a little more able to take the strain, for example by retrieving stock or equipment from other premises, however they will not be able to run at full capacity until supplies have been replenished, so again, crime against the business could be a major setback.

Businesses benefit from decrease in crime

Even businesses which already have security staff could benefit by employing a security company. Perhaps the security staff are only present during operating hours, or maybe in these difficult economic times you are looking to make cutbacks. Manning your premises 24 hours a day, 7 days a week can be extremely costly. Using mobile patrol services who come at random times can provide a security presence without requiring somebody to be there at all times. This can either save you on the costs of having to employ people to stand guard at all hours, or can free up your staff to do other things. Using a keyholding company to respond to alarm callouts can save the time and hassle of finding an available person to attend an alarm activation.

There are many ways in which concerns about the potential increase in crime once the Olympic and Paralympic Games have finished can be mitigated. The option that you choose is likely to vary depending on both the size and the nature of your business. For example something as simple as fitting an alarm to your premises can help deter would be criminals, but if it takes you too long to get there to check out the cause of the activation, its usefulness is limited. Even if you live nearby, if your alarm was activated, would you be available to go and check out the problem, and if you were able to make it there in good time, would you know what to do if the criminals were still on site? The London 2012 Olympic Games have been a great example as to how increased security presence can reduce the rate of crime, and if you can’t afford to hire around the clock security personnel, mobile patrol services should be a serious consideration.

Key Patrol offer a number of services which can help businesses reduce the chances of being a victim of crime. They are a keyholding company and depending on which services you choose to take out at the same time, there are a number of benefits to this, including having them respond to alarm activations and using their mobile patrol services.

Employing a security company to take care of your keys and act as responders to alarm activations can take a lot of worry out of owning your own business, especially in a city like London where traffic can be a nightmare and business locations are not always in the most desirable or affordable areas to live in. If you are responsible for attending alarm call outs for your business, the last thing you will want to do after a long days work and an hours commute home is to return to work to check out why the alarm has been triggered. On the other hand, you do not necessarily want to restrict yourself and your family to having to live in close proximity to your business premises as there is a high chance that a commercial or industrial area would not be top of your list for places to live.

If you are lucky enough to find a place to live that is near your business premises, you will still need to find a second key holder for the occasions that you are not contactable or are have gone out of the area. For some this may not be too big a problem, however if you have a small family run business, there may be times when you are not around and you do not have any other staff to ask to take over keyholding responsibilities. If you do have other people you can trust with keyholding responsibilities, it is a huge responsibility to put on somebody.

Keyholding companies take huge responsibilities off businesses

This is where a keyholding company comes in. Taking out an alarm response service means that they will send somebody to check out any activations. Key Patrol will send out a professional responder to your business and they will assess what has happened and what needs to be done about it. If the alarm has been activated by intruders they will liaise with police, and if necessary, repair contractors. They will not leave the site until they are satisfied that it is secure, so there is no need to worry about opportunists taking their chance to commit a further crime once something has already happened.

Using an alarm response service gives you peace of mind. You do not need to worry about if and when you will get called out, or what you need to do when you are there. As their staff are fully trained to deal with these situations, they will not put themselves at any risk. This is something that you and your staff may not be in the best position to judge as not only are you likely to have minimal experience in dealing with such situations, emotion can play a role, with you wanting to protect your business without first thinking about your personal safety. If you are not available to attend the call out and one of your staff goes in your place, you do not want to be held responsible to any damage or injury they may cause themselves by being sent untrained into a situation they do not have the skills to deal with.

Another advantage of using a keyholding company and their alarm response service is that you do not have to worry about the potential for a call out. You will not have to worry about staying local for the weekend because your second keyholder is away on holiday, neither do you have to worry about being disturbed in the middle of the night only to find out the alarm was a false activation, for example because you did not close one of your internal doors properly.

Using an external company to hold your keys takes out some of the worry about who has keyholding responsibility. It is perhaps unfair to burden a junior member of staff with the responsibility of being a keyholder, but on the other hand if they live considerably nearer to the business premises than the more senior members of the staff, it can seem illogical to have somebody travel in from miles away to respond to an alarm when there could be somebody who lives around the corner available.

The London 2012 Olympics showed that security presence can reduce the number of crimes taking place. Whilst you might feel that hiring a full time security team for your business is too expensive and not necessary, hiring a security guard service can be an excellent compromise.

If you employ people to work overnight, it is especially important to have some sort of security presence as this is when the majority of crimes against businesses take place. Criminals may either not realise that there are staff inside, or see these hours when there are fewer people around, both inside your premises and on the streets in general, as the easiest time to gain entry unnoticed. If you have anybody who occasionally stays until late this can be even more of a problem as there is a higher likelihood of them being there on their own, so a security guard service really is vital to their safety.

There are advantages to employing your keyholding company to provide mobile patrol services. For starters it means fewer people to trust with your keys, and fewer keys to replace should an incident happen meaning that you have to replace your existing locks. Key Patrol offer mobile security patrols. This means that you do not have to employ somebody full time to keep watch of your building, as they will do it for you. Uniformed security officers will arrive in liveried vehicles, providing a highly visible deterrent to any would be criminals. They will undertake security patrols either internally or externally, whichever works best for you.

Mobile security patrol services are a great way of increasing the visibility of security staff whilst keeping costs to a minimum. As we have seen that increasing security presence reduces the amount of crime, this really is worthwhile. The patrols are timed randomly, so there is no way for would be criminals to spot any sort of pattern as to when they will be patrolling your premises. This is important because if they came for the same period every day, anybody watching your premises would soon be able to work out when it is manned and for how long. Random patrols do not offer this opportunity as they do not know when they are coming, how long they are staying for and if they are coming back.

If you are also using the company for alarm response it has the added benefit of the security staff being familiar with your premises, making it extremely easy for them to spot if something is wrong if the alarm is triggered.

The evidence is clear, that in a time of increasing crime, the increased presence of police and security services at the London 2012 Olympic Games saw the number of crimes in London fall. Once the Olympics and Paralympics are over and this presence dies away, it really is a good time to start thinking about hiring a security company for your business.

Protect your business with first class security services from Key Patrol

You wouldn’t put your home or family at any unnecessary risk, so why do the same with your business? A security company can take care of your premises, staff, stock and equipment, allowing you to leave these worries behind when you leave the building at the end of the day.

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