With a resident population of around 120,000 inhabitants, a UK Top 10 university, excellent road, rail and air transport links and regional investment, Exeter stands as one of the Top 10 most profitable locations for a business to be based. If you didn’t know that then you do now.
Exeter’s bustling and historic city centre offers over 1.4 million sq ft of retail floor space, the bulk of which is situated along and immediately off the High Street with its extensions onto Fore Street and Sidwell Streets and the areas immediately around them within the city’s Roman walls.
In addition, there’s around three million sq ft of office accommodation which, in combination with retail outlets, cafes, restaurants and bars provides over 20,000 city centre jobs.
With all that Exeter has to offer, then, it’s perhaps not surprising to learn from The Telegraph (in an article dated 5 December 2011) that the city presently ranks third in the Top 10 places to buy a property in the UK.
Exeter Business Against Crime initiative
Since its introduction by the Exeter City Centre Management Partnership (ECCMP) back in 2005 as part of the ongoing and highly successful Association of Business Crime Partnerships programme, demand to join the Exeter Business Against Crime (EBAC) initiative has grown consistently to include many of those local shops, pubs, restaurants, car parks, the police and even street chaplains operating in the city centre environment.
Exeters business crime manager Anthony Couch is a former RAF and commercial pilot who joined the ECCMP in 2005 to finalise the planning and implementation of the EBAC initiative. As you can imagine, one of his principal tasks in creating the infrastructure for EBAC was to establish a robust security and public safety strategy supported by a reliable communications network and incorporating efficient processes and protocol.
“It’s my job to ensure the safety of workers, shoppers and visitors and to work with businesses and the police to keep the city centre free from crime and anti-social behaviour,” asserted Couch in conversation with Info4Security.
By the time the EBAC initiative was launched a year later, PMR Products of Chepstow had installed a Kenwood trunked analogue radio network linked to its own SafetyNet radio management programme to cover the initial EBAC geographic area.
Couch went on to explain: “The EBAC strategy for crime reduction is built on three main themes – Intelligence, Awareness and Exclusion.”
Intelligence, Awareness, Exclusion
Let’s start with Intelligence. There are now over 250 NEXEDGE hand portable digital radios deployed with members across the city centre at all key locations. Their operators, whether store or bar staff or security team members, provide the Control Centre with a constant stream of ‘on the ground’ intelligence, identifying shoplifters, suspicious packages, threatening behaviour and those disrupting the enjoyment of the city centre.
“The next theme of Awareness is where we share the pooled intelligence with our members and extended stakeholders, including the police,” stated Couch.
“We publish and distribute an album of known offenders and suspects to our members at our bi-monthly meetings. This serves to keep members engaged in the initiative, but more importantly perhaps it also allows them to alert each other by radio if known offenders or suspects are seen in the area and to remain vigilant at all times.”
Couch continued: “Our members work with each other and deal with many incidents themselves in terms of crime prevention and reduction, only involving the police in cases where additional assistance or arrest is necessary.”
Referencing the Exclusion element of the operation, Couch told Info4Security: “When we’ve captured evidence of repeated attempts to shoplift or to carry out anti-social behaviour, we take the case to court and request an exclusion order, banning the individuals from certain shops or city centre areas. If the individual persists in breaking the conditions of their exclusion order we would then seek to have an ASBO placed on that individual.”
Supporting the local regeneration scheme
The EBAC strategy certainly seems to be working, with numerous exclusion orders and ASBOs already effected, but the real indicators of success can be seen in the growing numbers of visitors to the city’s shopping areas, restaurants and bars as well as the inbound investment in the city centre (including the GB pound 200 million, 530,000 sq ft Princesshay Shopping Centre opened in 2007).
The scheme represented the biggest single investment in regeneration in Exeter’s history and brought together Land Securities in partnership with Exeter City Council in a vibrant city centre scheme which has further enhanced its reputation as the region’s ‘capital city’.
Of course, in terms of sustainability it’s vital to further capitalise on the city’s rich cultural heritage, transport links and commercial opportunities in equal measure.
The EBAC strategy in tandem with the city’s Masterplan have delivered this successfully over the past decade and, with a new 67,000 sq ft John Lewis store due to open in the latter part of this year (in turn creating 300 new jobs in the city centre), it looks to continue into the future in spite of the present global economic uncertainties.
Dealing with an act of terrorism
It might all appear to be a bed of roses in the story of the city’s sustained growth, but not so. On Thursday 22 May 2008, an unprecedented act of terrorism took place in Exeter that would change the way UK city centres manage their contingency planning and disaster recovery forever.
At 12.50 pm on that day, Nicky Raymond Reilly (now known as Mohamed Abdulaziz Rashid Saeed-Alim) – a 22-year old male from Plymouth – attempted to carry out a suicide bomb attack from a toilet in the Giraffe Cafe and Restaurant in Princesshay.
Fortunately, the attempt failed as the device’s detonator went off without igniting the main charge. There was damage to the restaurant, but thamkully no injuries to members of the public (except for the perpetrator himself, that is).
Police were immediately called to the scene and evacuated and cordoned off the surrounding area. The cordon was originally confined to the Princesshay area, but was later extended to cover the whole of the city centre, from the bottom of the High Street to Sidwell Street.
A further device was found in the vicinity of the cafe, but was duly disabled by a bomb disposal team.
First response from the EBAC team
At the time of the bombing the first people to respond were members of the EBAC initiative who assisted in evacuating the area.
Anthony Couch recollected: “The mobile phone networks were jammed, and our only means of co-ordinating activities and gathering information was via our Kenwood two-way radio system, linking our CCTV Control Centre to security personnel on the ground. While we hadn’t planned on an event of this nature, the incident proved to us the extended value of having our EBAC initiative in place, the value of our communications protocol and the capabilities of two-way radio in such exceptional situations”.
The city returned to business the next day with all shops open (save for the Giraffe Cafe). Not surprisingly, this incident prompted a comprehensive review of the city’s contingency and disaster recovery plan with a specific focus on the swift evacuation of large numbers of people to safe areas.
The terrorist threat of 2008 was exceptional, but lessons have been learned and further investment subsequently made in the security infrastructure in the city. Exeter has invested in one of the most comprehensive CCTV operations in the UK which provides coverage of all key points in the city centre. The entire system is fibre optic-based and has evolved and grown alongside the regeneration of the city.
The Exeter City Council CCTV Control Centre is staffed around the clock by experienced operators in a modern and fully-equipped Control Room complete with radio communication links to EBAC members and direct connections to the emergency services.
Richard Radmore is a senior controller with more than ten years’ experience in the security sphere. He has a trained eye for spotting suspects as they enter the city centre and an instinct for anticipating incidents.
Sharing his thoughts on the EBAC initiative, Radmore told Info4Security: “There’s no doubt EBAC has made a significant and positive difference to the city visitor experience. The initiative has integrated seamlessly with our existing CCTV operation and has given us the means to operate far more effectively in terms of crime prevention and reduction processes.”
He added: “We now have over 130 cameras in the city centre, all with overlapping fields of vision to allow us to follow movement without coverage gaps. In many instances, we have been able to work with EBAC members on the ground via the NEXEDGE radio system to co-ordinate security measures and to alert them and the police to situations we are monitoring. I would say that while we are able to cover vast areas with our cameras, the EBAC members are the eyes and ears of the city.”
Protestors to be dealt with at Exeter Cathedral
Of the more recent situations to be managed was the collection of 13 tents housing a group calling themselves Occupy Exeter. It’s constituent members set up camp in the grounds of Exeter’s Cathedral following the ongoing demonstration outside St Paul’s in London, in turn forcing the building to close for the first time since the Blitz.
While theyare peaceful protesters who are taking care not to damage the site, they nevertheless pose a challenge to city centre security as other members of the community may not share their views or methods.
Exeter Cathedral is situated in the heart of the city, just a short distance from the main shopping areas, and is therefore highly visible both day and night.
“Security has of course been stepped-up and, working with the police, we remain watchful should any incidents arise,” asserted Anthony Couch as he walked beyond the scene with Nicola Harget, business development manager at PMR Products.
Harget commented: “Exeter City’s EBAC initiative was the first of PMR Products clients to upgrade to the NEXEDGE digital two-way radio system. The new system builds on the experience we gained with the Kenwood analogue system installed in 2006, along with our SafetyNet radio manager system. The NEXEDGE system provides marked improvements in range and coverage, and also affords EBAC the flexibility to incorporate additional users and groups.”
Extended coverage and clarity of digital
Anthony Couch said: “We’re very pleased with the performance of the new digital system and its extended coverage and clarity. What makes it more effective in operational terms is the ability I have to ‘broadcast’ messages to all users or user groups and to have open, group, one-to-one and emergency channels at my disposal. The hand portable radio units have proven to be durable and the battery life is good.”
Couch admitted to being a “great fan” of PMR Products SafetyNet radio management programme which provides additional security and operational enhancements to his operation’s radio network (including voice recording and tagging, live status of all radios in use, polling of individual users and the remote stunning and revival of radios).
EBAC’s three-channel NEXEDGE system provides one general open channel, a second for one-to-one secure communication and texts and the third for communications in and around the Princesshay Shopping Centre.
The NEXEDGE system was fully installed by PMR Products in April 2010 and includes two NXR-800 base repeater units, a further six NXR-800E mobile units, over 240 hand portable radios (some with keypads) and two fixed aerials strategically located to provide maximum coverage of all the main areas covered by the EBAC members.
Evidently, the security regime initiated by EBAC is playing a massive part in maintaining the city’s excellent reputation as a location for business and residents to thrive in unison.
