South Africa has been chosen to host the 2010 World Cup releasing a wave of security concerns for players and their families.

World Cup chiefs believe European countries are scaremongering when they report that ciminals and illegal immigrants have been able to secure jobs in the close protection and security industries but these claims have been backed up by South Africa’s own security regulators – PSIRA. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, nearly all of us. One in 78 apparently.

Official bodies made a shocking 504,073 requests last year to have covert surveillance carried out on people. That’s one person every minute who will have their phone calls, email accounts and activities monitored without their knowledge. the law that is used to enforce this surveillance was originally set up to observe terror suspects but is now being used to spy on us for all sorts of reasons from storing petrol without a licence to bringing unquarantined animals into the country. Read the rest of this entry »

It is claimed that the Royal family cost the British taxpayer less than £1 a year to support, per person. Whether or not this is accurate is difficult to say as figures are blurred but a portion of this goes on their close protection and can we really begrudge them this if we wish to continue with the instiution? Kate Middleton, suspected future wife of Prince William has recently been allocated some personal close protection whilst skiing in Klosters, further fuelling speculation that an engagement announcement is imminent. Read the rest of this entry »

Chicago, USA, contains crime hot-spots that law enforcement officials want to eradicate. With this in mind, they installed surveillance cameras all over the city. With hundreds of these ‘blue-light’ cameras erected, many criminals were caught in the act. Quickly becoming wise to the presence of these police cameras the drug dealers and other criminals simply moved to a different area to carry out their activities and the surveillance is no longer as effective as hoped.

Stepping up to this problem, authorities are now looking to change some of these cameras to covert surveillance cameras. The aim is to use the high tech abilities of this equipment to trap the wrong doers in Chicago society and clean up the streets. Read the rest of this entry »

If personal security is one of your top priorities, you could do worse than look at the trend of criminals in your residential surroundings.

According to reports out today, Greater Manchester and London have the highest numbers of prolific offenders in the country. To be classed as ‘prolific’ the offender must have carried out more than six acts of criminal activity in teh last year and be causing widespread misery. More than a thousand criminals living in these areas are repeat offenders and still at liberty. Surely this says something about the justice system and internal security in our country?

To highlight the problem, offender Stuart McCormick is being held up as an example. After finally being jailed for burglary he then decided to own up to over 500 other crimes that it has taken the police a year to verify.

Up and down the country, criminals re-offending is becoming a huge issue. The Home Office have rolled out programmes to offenders such as intense supervision as well as working with other authorities to try to rehabilitate repeat offenders. Something tells me it’s not working!

Not only are the general public being repeatedly subjected to the violence and theft of these people but we also suffer higher insurance premiums if we live in a known area for repeat offenders. It is widely known that many of these repeat offenders are driven by living drug fuelled lives – maybe it is this aspect that needs addressing?

However, if you want to keep your family and yourself as safe as possible, move to Wiltshire. This has the lowest amount of repeat offenders in the country and will come with lower household insurance premiums as a result.

Amid all the confusion that has surrounded the security of five year old British boy, Sahil Saeed, his family say he has been released from his captors and is now thought to be in the care of local police in Pakistan before he heads home.

The kidnap case came to light on March 3rd when, at the end of a holiday in Pakistan with his father, the pair were preparing to fly home to Manchester. Armed robbers broke into the house where Sahil was staying and reportedly subjected the family to an ordeal lasting six hours before they disappeared with Sahil the following morning, demanding a ransom of £100,000 for his safe return. On the same day, a man is arrested in connection with the kidnapping and Sahil’s mopther pleads for his release, saying the family cannot afford the ransom.

By the following day, Pakistani police are investigating several suspects but rumours of the family being involved are strongly denied by them. March 6th and Pakistani prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, claims the government is doing all they can to find the boy.

Despite the boys father being asked to stay in Pakistan as a witness, he returned to his family in Olham on March 8th.

The confusion begins on March 11th when the British Government receive conflicting reports that the boy has been found and then that the search continues. It wasn’t until today that the British High Commission in Islamabad confirmed Sahil has been found safe and well.

There is debate about whether the ransom was paid, some suggesting that Sahil’s father paid the ransom from a third country, others declaring no ransom has been paid at all. A Punjab minister also claims that Sahil has been safe for several days.

So, who were the kidnappers? Why did they kidnap Sahil Saeed? Why did they release him? Was ransom money paid or not? Were the family involved? Are the Pakistani police close to arresting the gunmen or not? Many question still remain unanswered.

Security guards were taken by surprise yesterday at Germany’s biggest poker tournament at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Potsdamer Platz, Berlin.

The European Poker Tour began on Tuesday with celebrities such as Boris Becker in attendance, although he was out of the running for the £1 million prize money by Thursday. Despite heavy security, four masked gunman entered the building at around 2.15pm armed with machetes, hand grenades and machine guns while two more kept watch outide.

Panic swept through the event as staff and attendees realised the raid was more than a PR stunt and were sent running for cover. Minor injuries occured in the rush to escape the building but no serious injuries were reported. One security guard was able to wrestle one raider to the ground, knocking his weapon from his hand in the process, but was overcome when two of the masked men came to his aid.

It is expected that the gang made off with up to £700,000 of the prize money after forcing employees at gun point to had over the cash. Running from the hotel, the gunmen pulled off their balaclavas and made their getaway in a black Mercedes. Clips of the raid have been posted on YouTube as the tournament was a live televised event.

It is expected that the tournament will resume tomorrow with the added security of armed police to prevent any further raids.

It looks as though the use of body scanners at airport security is imminent and has met with mixed reactions from the public.

Some people are happy to be scanned by the electronic monitoring device, happy in the knowledge that this might just deter or even catch potential terrorists and others are up in arms that it breaches our right to privacy. But what is so wrong with the scanned images?

Well, they show a lot of detail about the body being scanned! In fact, they literally show a picture of the passenger completely naked. Of course, these images are seen only by screened and trained security personnel, they are not saved or stored or used for any other purposes but the Equality and Human Rights Commission say this method breaches the Human Rights Act in regard to privacy. They are also concerned that staff could be pressured to use the images for gain ie, selling pictures of naked celebrities or children via the internet.

Ministers pushing through the use of these scanners say that life and liberty are paramount – above the potential embarassment of the passenger and that codes of practice will be put in place to try and avoid abuse of the system.

In addition to the body scanners, the Government are also considering using passenger profiling as part of their new airport safety measures. While the Human Rights Commission accept that the Government has a duty to protect air travellers they still require a detailed report on how profiling or scanners will help. The concern is that vulnerable people such as the disabled, young children and transgendered people will be negatively affected by these new measures.

It has also been pointed out by Dylan Sharpe, the campaign director of Big Brother Watch, that neither of these methods are foolproof. Unfortunately, when it comes to terrorism, these people are very determined and it would be close to impossible to find one single method that offered complete protection. All we can ask is that due diligence is always used but it is feared by safety groups that this will become second place to relying on machinery that could fail.

the first body scanners are expected to be operational at Heathrow Airport by the end of February. It seems wrong that we live in such times that we have to be virtually stripped naked to ensure we do not pose a risk to our fellow passengers but many people would sooner do that than give up their right to travel.