Covert Surveillance – Close Protection

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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.

This news follows the terrorist attack at the Africa Cup of Nations which left three people dead and has highlighted the fact that there are more than 800 criminal cases outstanding against security services in South Africa due to the unprecedented number of criminals being able to infiltrate security companies due to improper vetting – or turning a blind eye. PSIRA are carrying out the investigations and in the past 18 months alone have uncovered criminals involved in activites from robbery to rape working for accredited security firms in South Africa.

Robin Hood Security vets all security staff thoroughly and all have to be of impeccable character with a flawless, researchable, proveable history. This is the only way to provide trustworthy close protection personnel to those who call for it.

Football players will need security services for the 2010 World Cup

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.

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 is the law being used by 653 state bodies and 474 local councils to investigate the public for all types of reasons – terrorism being only a small minority of these reasons. Only the phone calls or emails destination is allowed to be recorded – not the content – hardly seems worth the effort. If no wrongdoing is found, the spied upon person will never know.

These figures show that a 44% increase on snooping by authorities has occured over twelve months and nobody in authority thinks this is a problem? How abotu the 595 mistakes made during these operations that could cause people untold problems. Mistakes as simple as entering a wrong phone number and collecting information on the wrong person because of this.

There has been debate over whether or not social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have been used in surveillance and authorities are shady on whether or not this happens. I have been told, on very good authority, that it does.

There can be no doubt that covert surveillance will always have a place in keeping us safe but is it neccesary to use this resource to check how full our bins are etc??

Protection for the Royal family is divided into specific groups for specific types of protection, SO14, SO1, CO6 and CO7:

SO14 is divided into two groups:

• Royalty Protection Squad. These are the guys that provide 24 hour close protection for the Royal household. These officers are always armed.
• Special Escort Group (SEG). This is additional security laid on when the Royal family are on the move. Specially trained motorcycle riders and drivers with armoured vehicles and Glock 17 pistols  (and sometimes MP5 SF2 sub machine guns) escort the Royal family on trips. The SEG are also used for visiting dignitaries as well as when moving high value loads or high risk prisoners.

• SO1 are The Speicalist Protection Branch and provide close protection for the British Prime Minister, current and former. Ambassadors and high risk VIP’s will also make use of this service.

• CO6 are the Diplomatic Protection Group responsible for the protection of the diplomatic community in the City including the protection of embassies and No 10 Downing Street.

• CO7 is the Palace of Westminster Division responsible for the protection of the Houses of Parliament – they are not armed.

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.

The beauty with this equipment is that it can be hidden in such a small, obscure place that nobody would know it was there. There will be no big announcement about the type or placement of Chicagos covert surveillance but in the near future it will have a meaningful place in getting rid of these crime hot-spots.

This move comes in the wake of a shake up of the Chicago Police Department by order of Mayor Daley where systems were reviewed to ensure every available dollar was put into fighting crime in the district. With a $1.2 billion budget this amounts to having the resources and it is important this money is spent wisely. The aim is to interrupt the intelligence of gangs and drug dealers and gain the upper hand in control of the streets.

The beauty of this type of covert surveillance, according to police superintendent Jody Weis, is that it doesn’t have to be a permanent fixture. So, if the criminals that get caught think they are wise to the cameras whereabouts, this isn’t neccesssarily so. They are virtually mobile devices that can easily be moved to another hot-spot, leaving no stone unturned in the fight against crime.

The use of covert surveillance on the streets is a move that Chicago law enforcement are taking ahead of other cities. Let’s see if it works and maybe other areas will follow suit.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Progress is slowly being made in the investigation into the killing of Christian Poveda – The French filmmaker who was murdered in San Slavador in June 2009. The latest arrests further highlight the need for adequate close protection and security when high profile individuals insert themselves into notorious locations.

Christian Poveda was shot four times in the face in a hit orchestrated by the notorious Mara 18 gang, Christian Poveda had returned for more filming after making a documentary about the violent street gang. The original documentary was called “La Vida loca” featured the everyday lives of the Mara 18 gang and had just been screened at a number of festivals.

The latest arrests brings the count to 28 so far in the investigation, Salvador’s national police had indentified the latest individuals as being responsible for keeping watch whilst the murder was executed. It is thought that Christian was not using adequate close protection on this trip and it may well of cost him his life.

Christian Poveda was murdered on September 2nd 2009 10 miles North East of San Salvadore in the village of Tonacatapeque, he was 52. Christian Poveda was no stranger to El Salvador and first arrived there in the early Eighties to cover the civil war. He was extremely experienced in self preservation but sadly was vulnerable on this visit, close protection is a vital measure when visiting high risk areas.

Further news to be published as it is released by the national Police.