NEERCS EKOMS TPECNOC
IT’S TIME FOR THE PRIVATE SECURITY INDUSTRY TO EVOLVE Epsom and St Hellier NHS wanted to create a positive impact on their IT equipment that was end of life or being replaced as part of a refresh project. Enter Concept Management to assist with the project, which led to the the old equipment assisting a local charity. BY MATT GILMARTIN AND SHAYNE HUBBARD, CONCEPT SMOKE SCREEN
We’re all security professionals – this, after all, is a security industry association publication. At Concept Smoke Screen we’ve pioneered the use of security fog as an innovative, practical crime stopping technology. We’ve been in the industry for decades. But there’s an aspect of the security business that isn’t remarked upon particularly often. It’s this: at the heart of the security industry is a contradiction.
We believe the time has come for the security industry to start playing an active role in this structural-level crime prevention. This goes beyond ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’. Genuine social change must be at the core of our businesses and our industry. Our aim should be to help to create a society in which criminality is less appealing, because other opportunities are widely available and accessible. How can that happen? • Security businesses should actively engage with organisations that make a difference to the lives of those who are most likely to commit crime: young people, the poor, the disadvantaged, those with drug problems. • We should offer to partner with universities and other institutions to help undertake real world trials and research
Our goal is to prevent crime, yet we rely on the continued
into the causes of criminality and potential solutions.
existence and threat of crime to sell our products and services.
• We should advocate for structural changes and law
We look to stop criminals, but we rarely look to stop criminality.
reforms which would most benefit the vulnerable.
We help to find evidence of wrongdoing, but what do we do to
• Being seen to take the lead on civil liberties issues can be
help minimise the factors that contribute to that wrongdoing in
a powerful tool in changing the way the industry is
the first place? We believe the most important task of the
perceived from the outside. We should support any
security industry is to reduce risk for our clients: to help create
measures designed to protect privacy and promote
an environment where crime is less likely to happen.
inclusiveness and diversity.
18
Spectrum
| Summer 2021
