Security Stepped up in Run-Up to Christmas

Security in the city centre is being stepped up more than ever before in the run-up to Christmas - and when we went out with one of the street teams, it was easy to see why.

Business Against Crime has employed day and night marshals to help deal with incidents. In just over one hour yesterday, they had already dealt with three separate incidents of shoplifting.

“We’ve had a call with regards a gentleman walking out of a store with a portable fire in his hands,” said BACIL Operations Manager Andy Wilson.

“The guy’s dropped that and then gone into the next store. We’ve then made him aware that we were stood watching him. He looked like he emptied the pockets of what he had on him.

“We’ve then had a chat to him outside and it looks like he’s left the city centre now.”

The team then dealt with an attempt to steal several boxes of chocolates, before being called to a shop where a member of the public had made a citizen’s arrest after spotting a man he thought was trying to shoplift.

The street marshals will now be in the centre every weekend up until Christmas. They talk to shop owners to check how things are going, work with police to track down known offenders, and support the public.

But a lack of funding means it can’t be a year-round service.

Marshal David Walker says it should be a made into permanent thing, because they stop a lot of incidents which could have become violent:

“The incident we just attended could have turned out to be a lot nastier. It was just good that we had the staff there and we dealt with it properly.

“I do a lot of night work on the doors where there are a lot of bottles and things like that going around. Any of them could easily just go to something else. So it’s a good thing to have.”

The team say it also makes retail staff feel safe if they don’t have their own security guards, because they know they can get back up if they encounter any trouble.

Andy told us that it is a much-needed service: “The guys get run ragged on a Saturday.

“They’re up and down town. They are attending a fair few calls on a weekend at present, and I can only see it getting busier on the run up to Christmas.”

This is the third year the street marshal scheme has run and the feedback from previous years has been extremely positive.

Sean Walker, BACIL manager, says: “We have seen drops in the number of recorded incidents over the last two Christmas periods and this can, in part, be attributed to the presence of the street marshals who have been on hand to reassure members of the public and resolve potential incidents before they escalated. “