As companies start to emerge from COVID-19 restrictions they face many business challenges – not least introducing new working practices, such as social distancing and workplace cleaning to protect customers, visitors and contractors.
Secured by Design (SBD), the official police security initiative, advises that criminals too will be looking to return to their pre-COVID-19 activities. So security should be on the agenda too, especially around protecting tools from being stolen from premises and vehicles. This is because it continues to be a high volume crime – attractive to professional gangs and opportunist thieves alike.
Although theft of tools is not specifically documented in national crime statistics, there are many sources available that indicate the size and scale of the problem.
For example, in response to a Freedom of Information request, West Midlands police disclosed they had 4,391 thefts from vans in the calendar year 2018 and 4,708 in the previous year.
In a similar request to the Metropolitan Police, it was disclosed there were 14,256 thefts from vans with £14million of stolen property between April 2018 – March 2019.
Simply Business, a UK insurer of small to medium-sized businesses, reported in November 2019 that tool theft claims from premises and vehicles had increased by 54% between 2016-18. Their research of 1,000 UK tradespeople in August 2019 found more than one in three (37%) had become a victim of tool theft with the average loss of earnings and cost of replacing tools of £3,000.
In October 2019, the Federation of Master Builders found 78% of Britain’s builders had tools stolen over the last ten years. Of working days lost to tool theft over this period, 29% of builders said 1-2 days, 16% 2-5 days and 7% five working days or more.
The same month, the Federation of Small Businesses published that the total cost to small businesses in England and Wales of crimes like burglary, theft and criminal damage (non-cyber crime) is £12.9bn every year.
Products range from wheel clamps and steering wheel locks through to internally anchored security boxes, property marking and forensic coding systems, key fob and signalling blockers, and tracking systems.
We now have our first member company that has an app specifically developed to combat tool theft, which has achieved the BSI Kitemark for Secure Digital Applications. With company and product sharing the same name, the Tool Watch App encourages users to register the make, serial number and photo of their tools onto the app.
This enables police, who have their own interface, to carry out on-the-spot checks to see whether tools they have recovered have been stolen – providing the opportunity for police to reunite crime victims with their tools. The app is being piloted by the Metropolitan Police.
The product was raised in the House of Commons on 8 June 2020 by MP Bim Afolami (Hitchen and Harpenden), who asked the Minister for Crime and Policing, Kit Malthouse, whether he would champion the Tool Watch App to police forces.
The Minister replied that there was a lot more the Government could do to harness technology to fight crime and, when COVID-19 restrictions allowed, he would be keen to meet its developers and see the Tool Watch App for himself.
SBD advises businesses of all sizes to take steps to protect their tools and secure their vans. It may seem like an optional purchase, but it could save considerable business disruption.
Visit: www.securedbydesign.com
Scroll down to read more articles like this which have been published recently on this blog
You can also read additional current and archived articles on our dedicated magazine website
Low Cost and Free Publicity - Your company can easily benefit from some publicity like this in return for a contribution towards our layout costs (£60 to £80 plus VAT), payable in advance via PayPal or credit card or receive the service absolutely free of charge if you advertise (see below).
We post articles up to twice a day and never delete them - we only archive them each year so that they continue to remain visible to search engines.
To have your story published - just send us your news item, logo and image(s) and we will review the material, make any necessary changes to the wording / wordcount and then advise you when it will be published.
If you are a regular advertiser placing series bookings or subscribing to our VIP Packages in our printed and online publications, you will qualify for a specific number of free postings on this blog while you continue to advertise with us.
Also, if you purchase one of our Online and Print Combo packages, Featured Articles or Advertorial packages, posting on this blog is included in the price.
For details and rates for all of our advertising options in print and online, download our media pack contact us or visit our website.
Door Industry Journal is a trading style of Avalon Innovations LLP Company Registration No. 06807833
No comments:
Post a Comment