Thief keeps coming back after first break-in
The leading and ambitious housing corporation Mitros in the Netherlands also experienced this. They were hit by a wave of burglaries in their office buildings. The malefactors were out for computer equipment. Therefore the Management try to put an end to it. Mitros were just in the middle of a major reorganization and they had no knowledge and experience with regard to crime prevention. We were called in to set up a security project.
Mitros’ core activities are building, renting and servicing houses. They focus on the lower income groups and on people who are unable to provide for their own accommodation. With 33,000 rental units and approximately 350 employees, Mitros is the most important player at the local and regional housing market. Criminal incidents not only cause financial damage, they may also have a negative influence on the corporate image. This may effect the market position. So there were plenty of reasons to improve the security at Mitros.
Security and safety activities are the responsibility of Mitros Holding, headed by Jan Rossen. The operational processes are managed by the Facility Department. A project group was formed to direct the security project. The most important aims were: structuring the organisation of the security and optimising the break-in prevention of the office buildings.
The project was carried out in three phases: survey, analysis and implementation. Briefly, this is what the project entailed.
The project group first determined the scope of the risk survey. The survey itself focussed on the organisation of the security, the break-in prevention and the security awareness among personnel. The findings were summarized in a report.
The project group then held a meeting to make an inventory of all the risks. These results were laid down in a plan of approach specifying additional measures and indicating priorities. The options were presented to the Management Team, who was to give the go-ahead for the implementation phase.
As soon as the aims of the projects have all been met, security will be an integral part of the management processes at Mitros. The care of security has been defined as follows: ‘Structurally and systematically improving the security as an integral part of the entrepreneurial policy.’
An adequate security care system can have the following advantages:
- It guarantees an effective security, dealing with risks in a systematic way and supervising the execution of plans;
- It invites employees to make their own contributions with regard to risk control and raising the quality level of the security;
- It makes the organisation learn from past experience and use this knowledge to their advantage;
- It makes transparent to business relations that the organisation is in control of security matters;
- Complying with (increasingly strict) insurance conditions, with a proportionately low premium.
Mitros aims to get the most out of their operational management. A way to do that is to integrate the security and crime prevention in the operational management. At Mitros, people are convinced that a proactive strategy is necessary to prevent risky situations. Underlying pressure points can be dealt with more effectively by a systematic approach instead of finding ad hoc solutions for incidents and problems that Mitros is confronted with.
