With an average robbery reduction success rate of 90%, Raid-control has also recently been recognised by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) in their Gun Crime Prevention Manual as a best practice approach to reducing commercial robbery.
In making the award, David Dickinson, Chief Executive of the BSIA, said: "Raid-control epitomises what can be achieved through partnership within the wider policing family. It has played a significant role in reducing robbery in small retail outlets at the heart of communities."
New Raid-control Chairman John Birkenshaw, who collected the award, commented: "I am delighted that the initiative has won such a prestigious award at one of the most important security events of the year. When we launched the concept in 2002 we were sure that it had the ability to make a real difference to small community retailers and the BSIA award confirms that confidence."
The initiative involves the police and the security, retail and insurance industries. It requires retailers to adopt five crime prevention measures including: staff training, cash minimisation, time delay, image capture and stolen cash traceable. The combination of measures, which were put together with small retailers in mind, is proving to be highly cost effective and has become an accepted standard for reducing commercial robbery.
There are now over 250 Raid-control certificated premises across the country and a further 250 awaiting certification.