Twelve top UK guest speakers including Assistant Chief Constable Graham Bullock, Bedfordshire Police, John Hamilton, Head of Security for Bradford & Bingley plc, Detective Superintendent Bob Cummings, Met Police Flying Squad, and Tony Smillie, Director of Security for G4S Cash Services delivered incisive presentations on various issues regarding commercial robbery and Tiger kidnap.
Opening the two-day event, symposium chair Richard Childs QPM, former Lincolnshire Police Chief Constable and managing director ACPO CPI, welcomed over one hundred delegates from the UK and Europe comprising representatives from financial institutions, cash handling, retail, police, academia and security.The symposium dealt with three main areas of research: 'Intelligence Sharing Partnerships', 'Risk Assessing for Robbery' and 'The Ever Present Threat of Tiger Kidnap', during which delegates were treated to a series of first class presentations from experts in their field.Digby Ram, Managing Director of IBP International said: "In modern society it is absolutely essential that the security industry works closely with its partners in developing policies and measures that tackle violent crime. Bringing so many experienced practitioners together to discuss and debate how we go about this task is one way to achieve this goal - working in isolation is no longer an option.
"The outputs from the symposium will form part of the ongoing research being conducted by the Focus on RobberyT Partnership led by IBP International in conjunction with the Institute of Criminal Justice Studies at Portsmouth University, the BSIA, financial institutions, industry and the police. The aim of the partnership is to harness expertise from every discipline that has an interest in understanding the reasons for criminal behaviour, analysing the effectiveness of current reduction measures and reducing violent crime.In concluding the symposium, Richard Childs commented: "This has been one of the very best security conferences I have had the privilege to chair. The quality of the agenda and speakers has been outstanding, bringing a wealth of experience that has been shared with delegates who were equal to the challenge in the overall debate that took place."