First Security in the thick of it:

Brian Sims, Editor of Security Management Today Online, opens his report of 2 April under the title Anarchists storm the City in G20 protests:-‘As expected, the G20 protests descended into anarchy and violence yesterday afternoon, with several police officers injured and a branch of the RBS trashed. How well did the Met and private sector organisations cope with the disorder?’

He goes on to say:-

‘What happened at the offices of DTZ

Located on Royal Exchange between Threadneedle Street and Cornhill lies the world headquarters of real estate specialist DTZ. Yesterday, the company – and its appointed guarding company First Security (Guards) – found itself in the thick of the action, but fantastic attention to detail, meticulous planning and co-ordinated security measures realised a pain-free day.Speaking exclusively to SMT Online this morning, DTZ’s senior building manager Gary Foulds explained: “We completely closed off the front of the building, and reduced access and egress such that people movement was through one door only. All necessary points in the building were watched over by officers from First Security. In fact, we trebled our guarding capacity for both yesterday and today.”Foulds continued: “First Security’s officers have done a tremendous job for us. Special praise has to go to the company’s operations manager Adam Williams, who has been on site since 7.00 am yesterday morning and was still there when I spoke to him just a few minutes ago.

....and after  commenting on a fatality that turned out to be unrelated to events that day goes on to report:-

Preparations in place for all eventualities

“It was – and has been – a great team effort,” said a tired but obviously relieved Williams, who has been with First for the last 12 years of his career. “We practised lock-down scenarios in the weeks leading up to yesterday’s events. Although it’s not normal for physical buildings to be attacked on occasions such as this, as we saw with the RBS facility anything can happen so you must prepare for all eventualities.”To that end, all signage on the building was covered over and members of DTZ’s staff briefed extensively on their roles for the period of the protest marches. “All of the officers on site were specially trained for yesterday and today,” continued Williams. “We have emergency toolkits in place as well as defibrillator units just in case they happened to be needed.”

Brian’s article, and the amazing pictures that captured the scene outside The Royal Exchange, can be viewed athttp://www.info4security.com/story.asp?storycode=4122002 

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