Locks and Security News: your weekly locks and security industry newsletter
24th July 2024 Issue no. 715
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Rogue security guards pose serious threat to life and public safety
Security & Safety tech firm to help stamp out 'fraudulent' security guards at events. Move comes as Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill included in the King's Speech.
One of the UK’s leading crowd safety and security specialists has warned of a continued and serious threat to life and public safety at music, sports and entertainment events by rogue security guards who are fraudulently obtaining security industry association (SIA) security work licences and who are supposed to be safeguarding and protecting the public.
Lloyd Major, a former National Counter Terrorism police officer and specialist adviser in crowd safety and security, whose tech company Halo Solutions provides crowd safety and security software Halo (v5) to some of the biggest sporting events across the world, is now helping to stamp out rogue SIA training providers who are facilitating an illegal trade in fraudulently obtained SIA licences with the use of his company’s award-winning crowd safety and security software.
The security and crowd safety expert warned that rogue SIA training providers were proactively “coaching” trainee security guards and door supervisors to actively pass security courses with answers to questions and missing vital training modules in first aid training crucial to saving lives. Despite many of the trainee security guards being unable to speak English, many of those training providers were actively advertising and boasting of 100% pass rates and “no win-no fee’.
It comes at a crucial time as the Government’s Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill – also known as ‘Martyn’s Law’ - was included in the King’s Speech at the State Opening of Parliament as Monarch (7th November ) and will be committed to Government legislation. King Charles III said; “Legislation will be introduced to protect public premises from terrorism in light of the Manchester Arena attack.” Martyn’s Law is named in tribute to Martyn Hett, who was killed at the age of 29 alongside 21 other people in the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017. His mother, Figen Murray, has since dedicated her life to helping stop terrorist attacks in the future and has been one of the driving forces behind shaping the Terrorism (Protection Of Premises) legislation.
Lloyd Major, CEO of Halo Solutions, said:
“Rogue SIA training providers are sadly in the spotlight again, skipping whole elements of the SIA door supervisor course that are fundamental to the basic abilities of a trained security guard, including the ability to speak English, deliver first aid and de-escalate conflict.
The dangers of this should be apparent to everyone. Fraudulent licences, or genuine licences obtained fraudulently by cutting corners, are putting lives at risk. In the event of a major safety or security incident, it is vital that security guards are trained to an SIA industry standard, can call the emergency services and communicate with the public. It is inconceivable to allow anyone to become a security guard or door supervisor who cannot speak English or who cannot administer vital ‘first person on scene’ lifesaving first aid.
We only have to look at the tragedy of the Manchester Arena bombing to see what the potential outcomes would look like if these dangerous people - with their inadequate training and accreditation for security staff and with their minimal or non-existent operational capabilities inevitably fail to protect the public.”
In 2022, 954 licences were suspended, and 1,260 licences were revoked by the SIA.
For the last couple of months Halo Solutions has been working with key clients to build a new Halo Accreditation Module to help tackle this serious issue. This will now be extended to SIA-approved security training providers and will be available from next month (December 2023). The Halo (v5) crowd safety and security software will now allow security training providers to:
- Link their BS7858 screening and vetting responsibilities to verify the identity of trainee security guards taking SIA courses.
- Have the ability to prove the people attending their courses are who they say they are.
- The ability to include facial recognition and the generating of a unique verified ID and pass for each person.
- Trainee security guards can be scanned in at the start of each day and scanned out at the end of each day, making sure they attend the course in full.
- Generate audit trails for training logs for both the approved security guard and the SIA training provider.
- The Halo accreditation pass will act as their company ID card and support with access control at sites and events that the security guard is approved for.
- Integration with the Halo (v5) crowd safety and security platform operated by event security teams.
Lloyd Major added:
“Thankfully this very serious issue is confined to a small rogue element of training providers who are putting the safety and security of the public at risk. We work with some fantastic SIA approved training providers who have some of the very highest professional standards of training and who continually invest in both the training and accreditation of security staff.”
Halo Solutions, a British security technology company which was founded by Lloyd Major, has quickly established itself as one of the leading crowd security and safety technology companies in the world, with its Halo (v5) incident and threat management software platform.
Lloyd’s policing career saw him sit on the National Policing Events Gold Group (NPEGG), the Tactical Training and Equipment Working Group (TTEWG) and as an expert advisor to the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) for officer safety and public order. He also worked across England in operational planning units, including sitting on Safety Advisory Groups (SAGs) for specialist planning advice for thousands of events, major tournaments and operations.
The Halo (v5) software system was designed with public safety and security at its core, to assist with rapid decision-making, the ability to integrate streams of information and intelligence to enable faster responses and ultimately protect the public and save lives. Halo (v5) acts as a central command-and-control function that operates from a standard laptop, tablet or smart phone and can bring together more than 10 different systems integrated into one, with more than 75 client-led features. It integrates monitoring and recording of multiple feeds of information across a venue, from security, CCTV and live drone feeds to health and safety, cleaning, medical, public reporting, video streaming, ticket scanning and accreditation – and next year will include crowd management, crowd density, flow, sentiment, mood and capacity.
The company has played a hugely important role in protecting people and keeping them safe at some of the biggest events on the planet, with major events around the world, including the coronation of King Charles III, the Eurovision song contest, FIFA World Cup fan zones in Qatar, the Miami F1 Grand Prix, Silverstone’s British Grand Prix and Moto GP – to mention just a handful. It has also protected fans at some of the UK’s biggest entertainment events, from Notting Hill Carnival and Glastonbury to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
The crowd and event safety platform has also been deployed at the NEC Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, ExCeL London, Motorpoint Arena Nottingham and ACC Liverpool to keep millions of visitors safe each year. The Halo (v5) crowd safety platform has also played a major role in protecting the public across major rail transport infrastructure and stations across the UK.
Halo (v5)
is already being deployed and protecting the public at some of the world’s largest, most prestigious, and high-profile events, including the FIFA World Cup fan zones in Qatar (2022), Cricket World Cup (2019), British Grand Prix, Notting Hill Carnival, Glastonbury Festival and the Miami F1 Grand Prix.
29th November 2023