VPS Holdings Limited (VPS) has just released their lat­est ver­sion of its ground-break­ing ini­tia­tive, to help sites pre­pare and be secured, before trespassers set up ille­gal encampments. Accord­ing to the lat­est gov­ern­ment statistics, the num­ber of trav­ellers’ car­a­vans in the United Kingdom (UK) has almost tripled from 8,000 to 23,000, between 1979 and 2020.

When sev­er­al car­a­vans set­tle in unautho­rised encamp­ments, it can be a cost­ly exer­cise to move them on and clean-up after they have depart­ed - costs that are esti­mat­ed to reach over £ 100 million annu­al­ly for coun­cils and pri­vate land-own­ers combined.

VPS Tres­pass­er Track­ing Advanced Knowl­edge (T‑Trak) ini­tia­tive

Data for all attempt­ed securi­ty breach­es on the 30,000 UK premises that VPS looks after has been analysed

The VPS Tres­pass­er Track­ing Advanced Knowl­edge (T‑Trak) ini­tia­tive helps land owners and prop­er­ty man­agers, to avoid the expense of tem­po­rary encamp­ments, squat­ters, or ille­gal gath­er­ings, such as ille­gal rave parties.

Data for all attempt­ed secu­ri­ty breach­es on the 30,000 UK premis­es that VPS looks after has been analysed and com­bined with addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion sources, and then col­lat­ed. The results pro­vide advanced intel on as and when the encamp­ments move on, enabling VPS to map the next like­ly ​‘hotspots’, and to warn their cus­tomers of poten­tial unau­tho­rised encamp­ments, and trespassers aris­ing in their region.

Site-spe­cif­ic Urgent Intel­li­gence Report 

Release of T‑Trak2.0 has cre­at­ed an even more pow­er­ful, tar­get­ed ver­sion that pro­vides cus­tomers with a site-spe­cif­ic Urgent Intel­li­gence Report that identifies a risk analy­sis for their venue.

Deep­er data min­ing, togeth­er with addi­tion­al VPS resources, includ­ing evic­tion and bailiff ser­vices, manned guard­ing, prop­er­ty inspec­tors, and alarm respons­es, pro­vide real-time report­ing of inci­dents and accurate loca­tions of unau­tho­rised activ­i­ty across the United Kingdom and Ireland regions.

Three-tiered pro­file to deter­mine lev­el of risk of intru­sion

VPS Holdings Limited reviews all prop­er­ties man­aged with­in the immediate area of con­cern and then checks the prop­er­ties near­by, and pro­vides a three-tiered pro­file, so as to deter­mine the lev­el of risk of intru­sion.

It doc­u­ments the loca­tion of the threat, the trav­el time to VPS cus­tomers’ prop­er­ties, the lev­el of risk, and whether spe­cif­ic cir­cum­stances apply, such as large open spaces, cop­per on site, fly-tip­ping oppor­tu­ni­ties or recent­ly refur­bished build­ing and materials.

T‑Trak2.0 report

A T‑Trak2.0 report was com­piled and the cus­tomer approved the rec­om­men­da­tion for a canine-handling unit

In a recent exam­ple, an encamp­ment was dis­cov­ered in Basil­don, Essex, UK, min­utes away from a vacant ware­house and car-park facil­i­ty, which is man­aged by a mul­ti-nation­al real estate com­pa­ny.

A T‑Trak2.0 report was com­piled and the customer approved the rec­om­men­da­tion for a canine-handling unit – the guard and dog arrived with­in two hours. With­in two days, they had pre­vent­ed intrud­ers from enter­ing the site.

Jose Rosa, Head of Guard­ing, VPS Holdings Limited (VPS), said “The most effec­tive imme­di­ate response to an immi­nent risk is the short-term deploy­ment of a dog-han­dling unit. Addi­tion­al secu­ri­ty, such as perime­ter fenc­ing, con­crete bar­ri­ers, alarm sys­tems and CCTV can always be added or replace the guards later.” 

Large open spaces targeted by unau­tho­rised encamp­ments

Typ­i­cal areas tar­get­ed by unau­tho­rised encamp­ments are large open spaces, such as car parks, next to emp­ty ware­hous­es, where cop­per cabling or water tanks might be present. The car parks are some­times turned into ille­gal fly-­tip­ping cen­tres and run as a com­mer­cial enterprise.

Advanced warn­ings mean short-term enhanced secu­ri­ty mea­sures can pro­tect clients’ prop­er­ties at times of increased vulnerability. 

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