Background...
Raid-control™ is a crime reduction initiative that aims to raise security standards in retail premises, thereby reducing the potential for commercial robbery and creating safer working environments. Raid-control™ is a Police and industry partnership initiative, supported by the British Security Industry Association, British Retail Consortium and other organizations in the security and retail sectors.

Raid-control™ aims to tackle the general lack of awareness amongst retailers of best practice security measures and training, which contributes to the high number of commercial robberies. There is a need to improve standards by creating national guidelines on security for retail premises and to encourage retailers to adopt these as an integral part of running their business.

Crime Prevention Officers will be central to the implementation of Raid-control™. They will inspect premises to Raid-control™ standards and, if successful, award Police Certification.


Key issues and challenges...
The main issue is raising security standards in retail premises. There is a real ‘business case’ for retailers to take part in Raid-control™ because of the associated benefits. A robbery-free premises is a safer environment for staff to work in and customers to shop in; staff are more likely to stay and customers are more likely to come back. There may also be savings to be made on insurance premiums.

The challenge is to ensure that Raid-control™ is an easy-to-use package both for retailers and Crime Reduction Advisors. In order to meet this challenge the package consists of a bespoke site survey questionnaire, retailer self-training programme, equipment toolkit and list of accredited security trade associations. This provides retailers with clear guidelines on what they need to do to achieve Raid-control™ status and provides CRAs with clear instructions on how to certify premises to the required standard. The CRA can use the site survey questionnaire to satisfy him/herself that each requirement has been met, which should ensure that only the minimum appropriate amount of a their time is spent at any particular premises.

Raid-control is designed to be cost and time effective, but with the potential to significantly reduce commercial crime.