Working with the police to reduce plant theft and support communities

Clancy has been working with the Combined Industries Theft Solutions Forum (CITS) to help train police officers and increase awareness and understanding of the impact of plant theft on communities. As part of the CITS Forum’s work, a series of training events is being held around the country to support police in recognising suspicious activity around construction sites and identifying rogue and stolen machines.

This summer we welcomed over 50 officers from the Metropolitan, Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Thames Valley, Dorset, Hertfordshire and Essex police services at the Clancy HQ in Harefield, Middlesex. The session included presentations from specialist officers and industry experts on identification methods and the impact of theft on our industry and the communities we serve. The following day, two officers in Surrey who attended the event were able to put their training into action and identified a recently stolen dumper worth £40,000.

Ian Elliott, group head of security at Clancy, explained: “Plant theft is obviously incredibly disruptive to our work. It places a significant burden on the public in terms of both cost and the time delay to projects, which can leave people without access to the services they need. It also poses a real danger as the machinery needs special training and licenses to operate safely, which all of our site teams receive and update regularly.

“The objective behind the training day was to share knowledge between the industry and police and we hope that the session can support officers in reducing this type of crime as they work to protect communities.”

Elliott is also chair of the CITS Forum and an ex Scotland Yard detective who, while in service, was responsible for the formation of the Home Office Construction Equipment Security and Registration Scheme (CESAR). Commenting on the event, one officer said: “Thank you ever so much for today, both for your hospitality and also the excellent speakers. The knowledge I will take away to use on the front line was incredible.”