2007 Focus on Robbery™ Partnership Symposium
05 July 2007

IBP-Group will hold its sixth annual Focus on Robbery™ Partnership Symposium on 13 and 14 September 2007 at which delegates will discuss the ‘big issues’ concerning robbery in the retail environment and how staff and assets can be protected.

The Symposium will open with a keynote presentation and debate examining ‘Why the failure to resolve the pavement risk is the responsibility of all stakeholders’, led by Digby Ram, who is the Convenor for the European Standards Working Group on Cash-Degradation.

This will be followed by a real-life robbery reconstruction and a ‘cradle to grave’ examination of the robbery, raising important crime prevention issues and strategies that can reduce the likelihood of retail robberies happening. The focus of the session will include pre- and post-raid preparation, looking after staff, preservation of forensic evidence, police action and the legal process.

Digby Ram, MD of IBP-Group.

Digby Ram, MD of IBP-Group said: “No single person has a monopoly on security knowledge and this year’s Symposium will bring together some of the best expertise in the field of crime reduction, victim support and criminal behaviour. Working in isolation is no longer an option and when it involves violent crime we all have a duty to ensure that retailers, staff and customers can go about their business in safety.”

Richard Childs QPM, former Lincolnshire Police Chief Constable, will chair the event with support from leading experts in their field:

Ian Kirke, Training for Success, will discuss the need for all staff to be regularly trained in raid awareness to enable them to recognise vulnerable situations and deal with these traumatic incidents safely.

Michael Hodge, Principal Architectural Liaison Officer for Greater Manchester Police and Visiting Professor at University of Salford, will provide delegates with details of pre-raid preparation in relation crime reduction best practice and strategies.

Steve Nelson, Group Security Manager for Thomas Cook, will offer the corporate view on retail security, balancing the needs of the business against the safety of staff and customers in a retail environment.

Detective Inspector Andy Smith, Met Police Barnes Flying Squad, will outline concerns regarding CCTV imagery and the need for retailers to be forensically aware in order that police have the very best opportunities to gather evidence.

Kevin Tasker, Head of the Centre for Crisis Psychology, will explain the trauma suffered by those exposed to violent crime and how this trauma can be mitigated with professional counselling and support.

Actors will undertake the robbery re-enactment, which will contain procedural errors and lack of recognised security measures to highlight areas of bad practice that can assist offenders when carrying out robberies. The experts will provide an insight into how the retail sector can protect itself by maintaining compliance of simple security procedures and installing a range of crime reduction measures that deter offending and help detect criminals should a robbery take place.

To complete the full circle of crime reduction strategies, David Ryan, a UK expert on gathering, evaluating and disseminating criminal intelligence, will provide the delegates with advice on how the National Intelligence Model can be used in the retail environment. The presentation will include examples of how suspicion can be converted into intelligence and how this can empower staff to make informed decisions thereby protecting people and assets.

Dr Karen Shalev, Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, University of Portsmouth, will conclude the Symposium with details of her most recent research into cash in transit offenders.  The aim of her research is to provide a detailed understanding of the context in which cash in transit attacks are likely to occur and strategies that can counter the triggers for a robbery to take place in the first place

Symposium chair, Richard Childs, who will facilitate the event for the fourth consecutive year, said: “The Focus on Robbery™ Symposium has now established itself as a ‘must go to’ annual event for anyone engaged in protecting people and property from robbery. During my time as chair the Symposium has gone from strength to strength and it is a privilege to be part of this enormously successful conference.”

The Focus on Robbery™ Partnership is a joint not-for-profit initiative formed in 2004 by IBP Group to harness expertise from every discipline that has an interest in understanding the reasons for criminal behaviour, analysing the effectiveness of current reduction measures and reducing violent crime. The Symposium is an important part of the overall work of the partnership, which has produced many avenues of continued research benefiting those affected by robbery.

For more information email or call +44 (0)1428 641399.