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Conference highlights good work

Action Against Business Crime partnership conference

Crime against business is an ongoing battle for all affected – retailers, police, and local authority community safety managers alike.  Businesses are working in partnership to tackle and manage crime more effectively – but they can’t do it alone.  So say the organisers of the AABC conference, on February 22 at the Hilton Metropole at the NEC Birmingham. The event begins after an introduction by chairman for the day Bill Pirie, with a review by former West Midlands Chief Constable Sir Geoffrey Dear, chairman of AABC.  Sandy Hobbs, Eastbourne Business Crime Group, will follow, on the subject ‘Broadening The Appeal - Working With Other Community Groups’. Next, George Whitehouse, of Dudley Business Crime Partnership; and Bernie Maguire, of Swindon Crime Initiative Partnership will discuss how to make sustainable partnerships, by finding funding.  The last speakers before lunch are Katy Sismore, of Huntingdonshire Business Against Crime; and Rob Dyson, of Bolton Business Crime Initiative, on using data effectively.  They will expand on how statistics and key performance indicators (KPIs) provide members, police and others with information to help reduce crime, assist police, and provide relevant information to members.  This in turn ensures the crime partnerships can promote their work.

Awards
 
After lunch, the Partnership Excellence Awards (see below). The afternoon will see three breakout sessions.  One, about anti-social behaviour and how to obtain exclusion notices, led by Eloise Hassall, of Folkestone Area Partnership Against Crime.  The others cover industrial estate partnerships, by PC Ian Massie, of North Wales Police, about Wrexham; and ‘Out Of Town But Not Out Of Mind’, about partnerships for shopping centres, by Colin Gilligan, of Broughton Retail Park. The last two sessions will discuss Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) by Matt Corrigan, of Lincoln City Centre Partnership; and Jenny Inglis, Birmingham City Centre Director.  Jenny for example will discuss work with the city council, police, and business, who last year voted for the Broad Street BID.

Future
 
Looking to the future, Alan Dann, of Kent Police and Phil Laker, Northamptonshire county business crime manager will look at county partnerships, as a way of bringing town and city partnerships together, to better catch travelling, more organised criminals.  Chris Brogan, director of consultancy Security International, will run surgeries during the day on data protection and privacy issues.
 
Sponsors
 
Sponsors of the day are CCTV manufacturer Dedicated Micros; and Hicom Business Solutions, the firm behind the NBIS (National Business Intelligence Software) product used by crime partnerships to gather data about known offenders, and to issue exclusion notices banning offenders. 
 
Excellence awards
 
In association with Professional Security, as launched last issue, the day will see the Action Against Business Crime Partnership Excellence Awards.  These will, for the first time, recognise the many excellent business crime reduction partnerships.  They’ll give recognition to the hard work that is producing significant crime reduction and improved community safety and cohesion; and encourage others to follow these examples.  Award categories are promoting community safety; managing the evening economy; and partnership innovation. Closing date for entries is January 20; to find out more, contact AABC.

Story provided by UK publication