ESSEX Police wants people to feel safe at Stansted and its teams work together with the airport community to achieve this.

Specially-trained officers from Stansted Community Policing Team (CPT) regularly carry out highly-visible and unpredictable Project Servator deployments which can happen anywhere around the airport, at any time.

They were joined recently by colleagues from the force’s Business Crime Team, who were busy raising awareness and understanding of crimes and anti-social behaviour which affect all kinds of businesses at the airport.

Officers spoke with hundreds of airport retail and customer service staff, airline staff and passengers, about the Open For Business, Closed For Crime campaign which encourages staff to report incidents of abuse and violence. 

LINK: https://www.essex.police.uk/businesscrime

Inspector Christian Denning says: “It is not acceptable for staff to be abused or assaulted while doing their job and trying to help people. 

“We don’t tolerate such behaviour and neither should they. We want it to be reported to us so we can take appropriate action. This also means we can identify issues in a particular business or commercial sector and provide relevant crime prevention and security advice.

“Stansted Airport is a unique, dynamic and exciting community. Working with our partners there, we were able to promote best practice for staff safety and theft prevention in busy retail zones.

“While our breath alcohol tester proved popular when we were speaking to passengers about anti-social behaviour and issues surrounding excessive alcohol intake.”

Stansted CPT officers regularly talk to partners across the airport about how they can help with Project Servator, a policing tactic which aims to disrupt and deter criminal activity while providing a reassuring policing presence for airport workers, passengers and visitors, alike.

They have built links across the airport community to build a network of vigilance and encourage staff and passengers to report anything which doesn’t feel right. 

PC Sean McHale, of Stansted CPT, says: “As part of Project Servator, specially-trained officers carry out unpredictable deployments that can happen anywhere at any time. They are looking for tell-tale signs in individuals who may be planning or preparing to commit criminal activity.

“Some patrols are highly visible, involving uniformed police officers, police dogs armed officers and vehicle checkpoints. Others are less visible, with plain-clothes officers, CCTV operators, automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) and drones.”