Sixty per cent of companies have made no alterations at all to their security procedures following the July bombing attacks in London, according to new research.

The study, which was conducted for Securiplan and included information from the heads of security at FTSE Top 100 companies, also found that 60 per cent of respondents acknowledge that their current security provider or in-house team has little or no experience of dealing with this type of terrorist attack, while another 30 per cent of respondents openly admitted that they don't know what their current security team's experience is in this field.

"The type of terrorist threat we are now facing is very different to that of the 1980s when the removal of litter bins, for example, would have prevented an attack," Securiplan director Caroline Demoulpied said.

"We're now dealing with people who are prepared to die for their cause and do not issue warnings to evacuate. Clearly the way security is conducted needs to reflect this if maximum protection is to be provided for customers, employees and members of the public.

"So it's worrying that so many high profile companies are failing to review the security procedures they've traditionally had in place and not taking measures that will reduce the likelihood of them being a terrorist target."

The research found that the most common measures taken by companies to prevent a suicide bomber attack were the recruitment of extra officers (quoted by 13 per cent of respondents), better awareness of the whereabouts of employees (7 per cent) and an increase in the amount of CCTV monitoring undertaken.

A total of 11 different preventative measures were quoted by companies, including the removal of litter bins, restricted reception access, and in one case, the use of an electronic nose.

When asked to name the three preventative measures that companies should take to prevent a suicide bombing attack, the most common answers were improved access control (23 per cent), greater vigilance (20 per cent) and more patrols (16 per cent).

The research also found that 70 per cent of companies have not altered their definitions of what constitutes suspicious behaviour.

Source

Security Installer