1SC Guarding Media Centre.

Lost 2 won 1

2019 has been a great year of ups and down, you win some and you lose some but it’s the losing of contracts that concerns us most, especially when you have been in place for 15 years and never dropped below 98.75% in KPIs.  Whilst we accept contracts come and go for numerous reasons, we find it extremely odd when a large contract has been lost and the reasons given are a better ITT was provided, really? 

We decided this morning as it was quiet in the office at 05:30 to visit some of our sites around London and wow what an eye opener.  London is famous for its many modern and old tourist destinations, which give its visitors many trips and adventures in history through many ages.  London is vibrant exciting and a thrill to be in, but there lies its problem, your guard is down.  There is a mixture of commuters using the DLR trains and buses not to mention those who commute by road and pavement, the place is packed.

We started at South Quay DLR around 7am and boarded a train for Bank, aptly named, passengers were so busy getting on and off eating breakfast and smelling extremely bad they forget their surroundings and who’s next to them.  One man on the train next to me had his wallet in an open pocket, I could clearly see it and the money within which included euro notes, he was either a visitor or just came from holiday, so I told him to look after his wallet but he was more interested in his breakfast sandwich.

The jostling went on all through to Bank a pick pockets dream, a train full of fools and their money waiting to be parted, an open invitation especially those who wear head phones and are not aware of their surroundings both male and female, well, London  is the place to make money!.  We entered out onto the street which are not paved in gold, beggars and rough sleepers, commuters in a rush to their destinations, open bags earphones blazing, money to be had everywhere, the mobile phone truly is king in London or so it seems.  Females seem to care about their I phone and texting more than their own safety, they have no idea who is behind them, we informed several to close their bags, that’s after they removed their earphones in order to hear us.

Well it was an ordeal to start then we arrived at Tottenham Court Road where we had breakfast in Gregg’s, bacon and sausage roll with coffee whilst watching undesirables lifting sandwiches and walking out, what a City free food and money!

After three hours in London we decided to return to sunny Docklands via the Jubilee Line, not as busy but the same undesirables were still in plain sight loitering and watching for those to busy to protect themselves and their valuables, lambs to the slaughter comes to mind.

How’s your keyholding and response service, up to scratch?

The Key Holding and Alarm Response standard is BS7984:2016, staff working in these positions should receive 16 hours training and be certificated to say they are capable and have knowledge of the service they are providing.  The importance of this training becomes evident if you ask a response officer 1, two-part question;

1. What is a PIR and how does it work?

The PIR sensor itself has two slots in it, each slot is made of a special material that is sensitive to Infra-Red (IR)  When a warm body like a human or animal passes by, it first intercepts one half of the PIR sensor, which causes a positive differential change between the two halves.