Densely populated Dalston in the London Borough of Hackney and a flashpoint by police reckoning is no stranger to robbery, violence generally, frictions, occasional altercations amongst persons stepping on each other’s toes due to its steep population, resulting in human traffic as people from all over London, and probably visitors from in and around the world throng the Dalston market daily.
Dalston in modern Britain provides a case study in crimes and anger. This again is easily explainable due to the pervasive poverty of the area culminating in general poor standard of living amongst most Dalstians. On daily basis law enforcement personnel working at Dalston have herculean tasks trying to maintain law, order and keep the peace.
Such acts of thefts as shoplifting is a daily occurrence, but whether or not, shop owners have provided the needed financial resources to hire security officers to deter these shoplifters effectively is a matter for another editorial, sometime, some day. Many a shop and finance houses had in the past been robbed. At this juncture, we can immediately remember a robbery incident at Nationwide Bank on Kingsland High Street recently, but Vigilance’s candid observation is that most banks, not just at Dalston, but in the UK generally are not reading the hand writing on the wall and being foresighted enough under the current economic downturn with its attendant consequences of shooting crime rates, urbanisation, prostitution, drug trafficking as the rate of retrenchment continues unabated, thus making more and more people take to the street.
This being the case, a foresighted business house, organisation ought to take the issue of security very, very seriously. But the reverse is the case at this time, with banks being the less forward looking as far as security is concerned.
The system of moving cash from one business house to another, from one business house to banks is quite worrying, as our observation again reveals that, cash in transit personnel are not well protected. Cash in transit van drivers single-handedly move cash from one point to another without the needed security accoutrements such as helmets, bullet proofs and without communications and other gadgets that would act as a safeguard against temptations from criminals.
We are therefore not surprised when a staff of Loomis fell prey to eagled-eyed robbers at Dalston last Monday at 11.35 a.m. And being alone in conveying cash to a business house (name withheld for security reason), the two robbers pounced on him, kicked and made a football of him, growled as a lion would at his prey and left him bruised with excruciating pain while visibly shaken like a reed during a vehement east wind. He panted and gasped for breath, and with no back-up surrendered to the robbers who sped off in their bike with lightening speed.
But where were the police all this time?
After being turned to a punch bag, the staff of Loomis was lucky to have his life back, but he was a man thoroughly dazed to a dizzying point as he staggered repeatedly after the heavy beating.
Yes, the robbers left him bruised, but it was a bad “business” day for them and they would forever live to lick their fingers, as all they sped off with was an empty cash box! Their victim was coming out of a business house after the dummy round ritual. But the robbers thought there was money inside the box, poor souls!
But why do security companies involved in cash in transit have only one person conveying cash, huge sums of money from one business house to another?
This is crassly insensitive and condemnable as it shows they don’t care sufficiently about the safety of their staff. Why are security officers allowed to move cash without adequate protection-no back-up personnel, no bullet proofs? The simple answer is that they want to cut cost. Penny wise, pound foolish, you would say!
Why in modern Britain, do people move cash from one point to another without the needed communications gadgets? What should be the best method of moving money in the modern business world? Should cash in transit officers be escorted by the police or be armed?
In every generation, recessions have come with multifaceted challenges and consequences to economies, polities and to the people. Aberrant tendencies are known to be rife in times of recessions more than any other times in the life of a nation. It therefore behoves the business and political leaders alike to engage in strategic and foresighted thinking and plan not only to cushion the effects of the prevailing economic maladjustment, but to invest more in security, skills acquisition and be proactive. Thus, while the axe men grin from side to side as they indulge in cuttings, they should not forget that crime can burst at a geometrical rate, for cuttings of whatever type in a system, whether rightly or wrongly, whether justified or unjustified come with unpredictable consequences.
It is our candid advice to the police authorities at this time to ensure a more visible presence of the officers at Dalston and other flashpoint areas with their officers engaging in pre-emptive strategies in combating crimes. Also, plain-clothes police should be deployed to bus stops and strategic places in flashpoint areas, especially at Dalston.
We are worried that drivers of vans conveying money to and from business houses in London do not have sufficient knowledge of their delivery geographical areas. In the Monday incident involving a staff of Loomis, it was said the driver having no knowledge of the geographical area in which he was, told the police on dialling 999 that he was in Hackney instead of Dalston! Consequently, the police who were meant to respond as swiftly as possible to that emergency had to go to Hackney before being redirected to Dalston.
SIA licensed security officers involved in moving cash should have sufficient knowledge of their cash delivery zones, they should have the London street maps, or that of other cities as the case may be with them, they should have satellite navigations installed in their vans and have all emergency numbers handy. In addition, they should have in their possession, the numbers of all the police stations in their operational areas.
Generally, the four-day training giving to security officers at the moment is not enough. Every security company should have a staff development scheme in addition to the SIA training, where staff knowledge of security operations, knowledge of the security industry, customer service, etc can be updated regularly.
Finally, while the cutting spree lasts, we want to advise the coalition Government that the times in which we are call for increase in the security vote.