SIR – WHETHER RICHARD CHILDS WEARS HIS new hat as chief executive of the Joint Security Industry Council (JSIC) or as a former – and very effective – chief constable of Lincolnshire Police, his strategic thinking is always welcome (‘The industry needs a Forum for debate!’, Letters, SMT, November 2004, pp13-14).

Richard’s healthy interest in our industry’s past has now been translated into positive activity which can only benefit all concerned. We very much welcome his recent appointment at JSIC, and would support entirely the view that there needs to be both a wide-ranging public debate and a Forum for the various parts of the industry to clarify their views on – and involvement with – the wider police family.

If I had to take the slightest issue with Richard’s views, it would be over his suggestion that the BSIA “may not always be best equipped to take a non-commercial view”. There’s almost an implication that a commercial view is wrong, and I’m sure he doesn’t mean that.

Part of the debate that’s needed must surely centre on discarding for all time the misguided concept that the private sector cannot deliver public services purely and simply because it needs to make a profit.

The wider police family is happening now. Indeed, it has been happening for a number of years, arguably since the early 1990s when police officers ceased to escort prisoners – and, within a year, showed an 82% improvement in efficiency and a 15% reduction in their overall costs to the Exchequer.

That success has been repeated elsewhere in custody suite management, in the growing partnerships with the police aimed at detecting and preventing Cash-in-Transit crime and in the burgeoning use of private security officers at major special events. The scene is now set for that involvement to become wider still.

This is a pivotal moment for the industry. It is a time when all who believe in its future must join together for the good of the security sector.

For our part, the BSIA will co-operate fully with Richard and other like-minded individuals to ensure that the debate is extensive, fair, vigorous and – most importantly – conclusive.

David Dickinson, Chief Executive, British Security Industry Association

Source

SMT

Postscript

Many thanks for writing in, David. Several guarding contractors in the private sector are indeed providing an excellent service in the public realm. By and large, these aren’t companies rendering huge turnovers, either.

At the end of the day, a security service provider should be judged on its ability to meet (and, dare one say, exceed) the terms of the Service Level Agreement, not on how much money it makes, what the organisation has spent on glossy corporate brochures and the size of its market share.

In any event, healthier profits will arise from word-of-mouth whenever a contractor performs well. Be that in the private or public sectors.