The National Business Crime Centre was last featured in this magazine following its launch in 2018, with details of the unit introduced as well as a strong focus on its work around the Police and Security Initiative (PaS). A year on, the NBCC has celebrated its one year anniversary, where National Police Chiefs Council lead for Business Crime and Private Security Liaison, Sir Craig Mackay, addressed guests at New Scotland Yard where, due to Sir Craig’s retirement from the Police Service, he announced the new lead for the NBCC would be Commissioner Ian Dyson from the City of London Police.
This is a welcome appointment and a natural fit for the unit, who continue to progress bold initiatives to tackle business crime and have seen unprecedented progress in creating and strengthening relationships between law enforcement, the private sector and the private security industry.
To recap, The NBCC supports officers from all 43 Police Forces, Police Service of Northern Ireland, the Scottish Business Reliance Centre and other national specialist units, to act as a conduit for sharing preventative advice on crime trends nationally, with the team aiming to have travelled to reach every region by the end of 2018. NBCC areas of work fall under three main strategic strands of Partnership, Intelligence and Prevention.
An exciting update is that the Police and Security initiative has been approved as a viable national project and a number of projects are being launched, including a partnership between Sainsbury’s and Sussex Police looking at using security officers more widely, with Nottingham due to launch a Community Guarding project similar to that of Sussex in the near future. A definitive ‘Business Crime’ definition is being progressed via a separate working group led by Home Office and attended by NBCC.
The NBCC website is freely available as a resource for security and staff in businesses to learn, share and support each other to prevent and combat crime. Items on the site are split between relevant news on crimes affecting business and a library of guidance produced by NBCC, partners and third parties as well as information about schemes and resources for the business community. We would encourage all those associated with professional security to be the first to hear the latest news and developments from the NBCC by going onto the site and subscribing:www.nbcc.police.uk. It has also launched a secure online ‘Knowledge Hub’, where industry experts and anyone from the world of business or private security can set up groups to share information and prevention advice under categories such as retail, rural or organised crime, as well as security and any other popular fields.
Just some of the significant projects led by the National Business Crime Centre have included the ‘Tackling Violence against Business’conference in March 2018. This was attended by over 200 business leaders, security professionals and representatives from police forces and local authorities, who all gathered together to share experiences and expertise in fighting crime and to hear the latest advice on topics from the new data protection regulations, CPS advice for obtaining best evidence, to preventing acid and knife attacks. Following a series of meetings with businesses, The NBCC undertook analysis looking at violent crime in London in hot spot areas and the NBCC is supporting the national implementation of industry standards regarding the sale of knives. Ongoing engagement with domestic and international academic groups is helping to understand escalating crime trends and how we can adopt and embrace a truly collaborative approach going forwards.
Further areas of influence have included the creation of Cyber Protection workshops for small and medium sized businesses, run in partnership with the National Cyber Security Centre, as well as the first ever international ‘Citizens Academy’ in partnership with Homeland Security, where leaders from global companies attended six, weekly workshops hosted at iconic venues including the Old Bailey, U.S Embassy, GCHQ and House of Parliament, to learn about policing practices, modern challenges and share their skills and experience.
There is so much more work the NBCC are progressing, from reviewing the Community Safety Accreditation Scheme (CSAS) to develop consistency across all forces, to utilising expertise from policing intelligence hubs around the UK and working with numerous private industry membership groups and serious and acquisitive crime leads to change the landscape for how we respond to the organised crime groups currently moving around the UK. They are also looking to create bespoke training initiatives in 2019, aimed at security professionals within business, to share policing expertise in combatting business crime together.
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