The Association of Security Consultants (ASC) has always prided itself on encouraging the development of ideas focused on advancing the disciplines of both risk and security management in the UK.
To this end, for the last six years now the organisation has sought to foster innovative and progressive thought by awarding a prestigious prize – namely the Imbert Prize (named after ASC patron Lord Imbert of New Romney CVO QPM JP) – to the leading student dissertation submitted by academics studying at Cranfield, Leicester University, Loughborough University or the University of Portsmouth.
The submitted dissertations must be relevant to the practise of consultancy in the security sector and are judged by an Awards Panel appointed by the chairman and Board of the ASC (the members of which duly decide who wins the GB pound 1,000 first prize).
Dissertations are assessed on an individual basis according to the subject matter’s day-to-day relevance for the security sector, the depth and quality of research conducted, overall presentation of thought and, ultimately, the conclusions drawn.
This year’s submissions for the University Dissertation Award – all of which were delivered in early May – were as follows:
Cranfield University
Leicester University
Loughborough University
University of Portsmouth
Rollinson announced as the 2011 winner
Sadly, Lord Imbert could not attend this year’s ASC Annual Luncheon – held at The Royal Air Force Club on London’s Piccadilly – in person, but sent through his comments to Roy Sutherland, who duly announced the winner to be detective sergeant Paul Rollinson of the Greater Manchester Police.
In his notes, Lord Imbert stated: “My colleagues and I on the Awards Panel who had the job of reading all this year’s entries were unanimous in our view that, every successive year, this competition realises a new ‘high’ in the level of research, argument and presentation. 2011 has certainly been no exception to that rule, and I can but congratulate not just the students but also the universities and their tutors. This augurs so well for the security profession.”
Turning to the winning dissertation by Paul Rollinson, its focus is on terrorism and, more specifically, the Channel project introduced during the life of the previous Government.
That project sought to identify individuals at risk of radicalisation and to reduce their vulnerability to it through multi-agency support. It was introduced within Greater Manchester Police’s domain in 2009, and Rollinson attempted to find out how it’s helping to earmark and support people identified as being at risk from radical teachings.
“This was a well argued and good presentation supported by deep research,” commented Lord Imbert in his notes, “much of which Paul achieved through a qualitative approach wherein he focused on interviews with frontline professionals from services across Greater Manchester who have a responsibility to protect young people and vulnerable adults from significant harm.”
Lord Imbert also praised Stephen Peck of Leicester University on his dissertation – commending the work within to all senior police officers for “prime time reading”, in fact – which sought to evaluate the effectiveness of preventative strategies in the management of counter-terrorism.
The ASC’s hugely respected patron and former commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service described Major Gina Amos’ submission as a “thought-proving thesis on UK prisons”. Lord Imbert stated: “This we all saw as a well argued and comprehensive piece of work with extensive references which showed much research and study.”
From Lord Imbert’s perspective, it was “a pity” that Major Amos was denied access to some of our major prisons for closer personal research with which to frame her studies.
“One must, I suppose, understand the sensitivities to be observed by prison governors in these cases where, as Major Amos demonstrates, ‘prisons play a significant role in the radicalisation of young Muslims.'”
In closing his comments on this particular dissertation, Lord Imbert asserted: “I must say how refreshing it is to see a young woman looking at such a subject which for too long may have been considered to be the preserve of the male of the species.”
Assessment of the private investigation arena
Angus Darroch-Warren’s dissertation, of course, won the 2010 Wilf Knight Award bestowed by The Security Institute.
In his assessment of the private investigation field, Darroch-Warren examined the probable impact on standards and quality of service provision in this area of security delivery.
A Case Study of an extant international regulatory framework was used, against which proposals for the UK have been compared.
There are quantitative surveys and much qualitative analysis, as well as interviews with operational investigators and Government representatives.
SMT Online and Info4Security would like to congratulate all of this year’s University Dissertation Award finalists.
The 2011 Security Associations’ Award
The Security Associations’ Award element of the Imbert Prize is bestowed upon the individual deemed to have made the most notable contribution towards the security sector during the preceding year.
As always, there were four nominees (as follows):
Sponsor: Mike Alexander (chairman)
Nominee: James Willison (ASIS lead on convergence)
Sponsor: James Kelly (CEO)
Nominee: Mike Bluestone CSyP (director of security consulting, Corps Security and chairman, The Security Institute)
Sponsor: Justin Bentley (CEO)
Nominee: Bill Butler (CEO, Security Industry Authority)
Sponsor: Mike Bluestone CSyP (chairman)
Nominee: Ken Livingstone (director, Perpetuity Training)
In 2011, the winner of this award was James Willison. Again, congratulations to James and indeed each of the nominees from us all here at UBM Live’s Security Portfolio.
The Association of Security Consultants’ Award
The final element of the Imbert Prize each year is the ASC Award. This is received by the ASC member that has been judged to have made the most significant contribution to the discipline of independent security consultancy in the preceding year as nominated by ASC members and ratified by the organisation’s Awards Panel.
This time around, the award was won by Mike Tennent of Tavcom Training (who ran a phenomenally successful Tavcom Training Theatre at this year’s IFSEC). Well done, Mike. Richly deserved!
The Keynote Address: Sir Hugh Orde
As ever, the Imbert Prize ceremony came after the Keynote Speech, this time around given by ACPO president Sir Hugh Orde.
In a relatively short space of time Sir Hugh expertly examined the policing landscape, and what he believes to be “the biggest challenge to British policing in the last 125 years” in the shape of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill.
Sir Hugh is a firm believer that British policing must maintain its operational independence. Indeed, he stressed that he would “die in a ditch” to preserve that situation.
Reiterating his views at the ACPO Conference earlier this week, and as we reported here on SMT Online, Sir Hugh talked about the 44 forces and how that model set up in 1962 perhaps needs to be looked at.
“There was no cyber or e-crime back then,” stressed Sir Hugh. “The world has changed since that time, and so have the threats to policing itself.”
Sir Hugh said he firmly believes our anti-terrorism information network is “the best in Europe” before proceeding to state that the proposed abolition of the National Policing Improvement Agency must not lead to an “over-complication of structure”.
The ACPO leader admitted that the Government’s plan to take 20% of funding away from the police service represents a challenge.
“80% of policing work is all about people,” he said. “While every chief officer is fighting hard to maintain the quality and depth of frontline policing, we will see less police over the next four years.”
Sir Hugh looked back at the time when he joined the police (in 1977) and asserted that the standard of individual joining ‘the job’ today “is as high as it has ever been”.
ACPO’s president added: “Our policemen and women are all doing a great job, day in and day out.” A viewpoint wholeheartedly endorsed by SMT Online.
Sir Hugh finished his excellent speech by stating that the British policing model as it stands is “recognised the world over” as something of an exemplar.
Interestingly, he also touched on the fact that he would like to see a Chartered Institute of Policing come into being at some point in time.
