POLICE AND INDUSTRY WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP WITH HITACHI TO HELP TACKLE CRIME

The Combined Industry Theft Solutions (CITS) group, in partnership with police, and construction equipment manufacturer Hitachi Construction Machinery recently held a successful police training event at their new production facility in the North East of England.

On November 22nd, CITS in conjunction Hitachi, hosted a special police training event for 60 officers from five regional force areas including Northumbria, Cleveland, North Yorkshire, Durham and Police Scotland constabularies.

The officers attended a full day's training, which was delivered by both specialist police training officers and industry experts including DC Chris Piggott, of The National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVCIS) and Police Liaison officer Peter Wilson from CESAR, to learn about the current threats around Construction and Agricultural machinery theft.

The event offered practical tips on how to identify stolen plant, which included demonstrations on machinery identification.

CITS chairman Ian Elliott, the Head of Security for Clancy opened the event, alongside Seumas Ascott, Head of Security for J. Murphy representing the industry, whilst Superintendent Andrew Huddleston of Northumbria Police highlighted the need for working in Partnership to tackle crime.

David Roberts, CEO of Hitachi Construction Machinery UK welcomed the officers to the Hitachi facilities and the special conference facility which was set up specifically for the training day, within their impressive warehouse.

David Roberts, CEO of HCMUK said “On behalf of Hitachi Construction Machinery UK Ltd (HCMUK), we are delighted to be participating in this event with all the key stakeholders in the CITS group. OEM’s and dealers have a responsibility to our customers to help protect their assets from theft, as well as a responsibility to the Police to help identify those that are stolen, and at HCMUK we take this very seriously. We must continue to evolve and develop products and adapt to changing trends like the rise in thefts of technology. That is why these awareness and training sessions are so important in enabling officers to learn the most up to date knowledge to tackle crime.”

The event was also supported by the Home Office industry schemes, CESAR, and MicroCESAR, both identification marking systems used by Police to easily identify ownership of plant and machinery used on both farms and construction sites alike.

The feedback from the day was excellent.

CITS, an industry forum comprising of representatives from the Home Office, Police, Insurers and Industry have ran a series of training events throughout 2022, and plan to host a further series of events in 2023. Officers should register their interest for future events, with faye@cits.uk.com

Further details can be found on the CITS website www.cits.uk.com

Date Created: 30/11/2022