Security consultant wants to work with council to prevent “military-style” burglaries
St Albans Chamber of Commerce St George's Day lunch 2014 - Credit: Archant
A St Albans security expert has said he wants to work with authorities to help fight the spate of increasingly violent, military-style burglaries recently seen across the district.
Sid Khan, who is volunteering to be slapped to raise money for Home-Start. - Credit: Archant
Sid Khan, boss of Principal Security Consultants, says he has received more and more enquiries for burglar alarms after reported break-ins rose by 27 per cent between September 2016 and September 2017.
Mr Khan revealed certain security companies were doing more investigative work to replace police officers who were being held back by austerity cutbacks, and the reduction in police correlated with a rising number of violent burglaries reported by the Herts Advertiser in recent weeks.
He said: “These are young kids who in my opinion do not know the consequences of what they are doing.
“If they get caught, they may find themselves facing a much longer sentence because it goes from burglary to aggravated burglary.”
Burglars are also becoming cleverer, Mr Khan says, wiping down kitchen surfaces before they leave and specifically targeting Asian families, whose 20 and 24-carat gold family jewellery can be melted down more easily.
He said: “Gone are the days someone just breaks in and steals your TV. You could not walk off with a TV nowadays, and they are not worth anything.
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“They are using more sophisticated methods in how they are targeting people, like a military operation.
“They are watching a target and their movements and then acting upon that information, so one of the best things people can do is not have a certain pattern to their movements.”
Mr Khan is hoping to discuss the possibility of setting up patrols in the worse-affected areas for burglaries with St Albans council.
This follows a very successful operation in Barnet, where his company patrolled an area for four or five nights a week, which appeared to persuade criminals to move on to a different area, decreasing the amount of anti-social behaviour and criminality.
To find out more about Principal Security Consultants, visit www.principalsecurityconsultants.com
