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Police move to ease City crime fear

Specialist police squads designed to help companies fight crimes ranging from data theft to terrorism are to be set up in the City of London and other leading business centres from next month.

Three pilot units of specialist officers are due to start operating in London from next month in a move that could be replicated across Britain. The initiative comes amid growing concern that fears about crime are deterring expatriate workers and foreign companies from coming to London.

Richard Bingley, executive director of security and policing at London First, the business group, said he hoped the project would help tackle a real - if often unjustified - corporate anxiety about crime.

"We want to work with the police to reassure staff and international investors that London is a safe city - one of the safest cities you can do business in," he said.

The five-strong police squads, which will include officers with experience in economic crime, counter-terrorism and building security, will operate from May 1 in offices at the Broadgate Estate in the Square Mile and near London Bridge and Victoria railway stations.

Mike Bowron, City police commissioner and project executive, said the units would give a corporate twist to the concept of neighbourhood-focused policing now in vogue nationwide.

The squads would provide classic "bobby on the beat" services such as recording car crimes suffered by employees in their home towns, sparing staff from having to spend hours making reports at their local police stations.

The teams will also be able to offer more sophisticated advice to corporations, such as dealing with the terrorist, data crime and physical security consequences of computer thefts.

Mr Bowron said the initiative - whose partners include Scotland Yard - had been given impetus by protests such as those in the City during the G20 summit this month.

He said he hoped to see it spread across the UK in time.

"There is no reason why, if this works, you couldn't pick it up and apply it to a petrochemical plant in Cleveland, a call centre in Strathclyde or a shopping complex in Manchester," said Mr Bowron.

The City force took on the initiative after it concluded it needed to do more to meet the needs of the many companies and employees on its patch, where the 8,000 resident population swells to about 300,000 once daily commuters arrive.

Copyright Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009

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