Winner
British Transport Police
The London Underground (LU) Division of the British Transport Police has regularly suffered the ill-effects of car crime in its 57 designated car parks dotted throughout the Capital. With overall responsibility for car park operation falling to LU’s Marketing and Planning Department, a series of meetings were held with a view to combating the problem. A full proposal was then submitted to the Home Office CCTV Fund managers outlining a CCTV scheme for each car park to be monitored from three control rooms, with manned guarding to back up the electronic security installations. To date, over 550 cameras have been installed in conjunction with Tyco and British Telecom as part of ‘Operation Hawkeye’. Crime reductions of over 55% are projected by 2003.
Runners-Up
id technology group
The id technology group has forged a strategic partnership with Video Controls (VCL) to benefit Blue Chip end users. The VCL catalogue now features id’s EAS products as part of an holistic security package, while VCL is developing products with id’s clients in mind. Thus id can now be thought of as a ‘solutions provider’ instead of solely being viewed as an installer. The partnership allows the immediate replacement of all components from stock, VCL maintaining a ‘buffer stock’ of all components that may be used. This helps in eliminating costly and labour-intensive invoicing chains, while promoting the concept of zero failure rates for any given installation.
Security Support Services
Founded in 1993, Security Support Services (SSS) is a specialist provider of outsourced security management and monitoring services to major national organisations in the commercial and industrial sectors. The company undertakes complete day-to-day responsibility for the management of clients’ electronic security, fire detection, CCTV and EAS systems with the aim of reducing costs and improving on service delivery. A partnership with retailer Somerfield has seen the latter reduce the number of false alarms across its 600-plus UK outlets by 20% in the first year alone, at the same time achieving a 65% reduction in the cost of CCTV maintenance.
