Combined Industries Theft Solutions

CITS

Chairman - Ian Elliott

Welcome to the CITS website and hopefully you will explore the site and find useful advice whether you be a police officer, a farmer, a builder or tradesperson, or a representative from a construction or utility company.

CITS, is a not for profit industry think tank, with its primary aim dedicated to reducing crime within the Agricultural and Construction industries. As such we engage and form partnerships with the Home Office, the Police, manufacturers, insurers and security businesses to design out crime.

As a group we are dedicated to offering advice and suggestions to better protect both large and small businesses alike from crime. This comes in many forms, from the  established methods of thefts and burglaries, the increasing risk of frauds, to the super sophisticated electronic hacking attacks and cyber frauds. Businesses must be aware of the potential risks, even including that of the insider threats. Within the website you will find best practice suggestions and advice from experts from every field.

This year, 2024, CITS will continue to work with Police and create local Partnerships to assist with their understanding of the impact of crime upon our industries.

The first, and one that affects a huge number of small businesses and large companies equally, is that of the theft of tools from both sites and from vehicles. Too many tradesmen are losing the tools of their trade, causing horrendous problems. Thus we will be looking at what can be done, how we can protect the sites and vans and how we can make stolen tools less attractive to the second hand market. Working with the new National Construction and Agricultural Theft Team (NCATT), we aim to promote the new Equipment Theft (Prevention) Bill 2023 and engage with its aims.

CITS will continue to encourage companies and tradesmen to review their tool security and promote how to best utilise the latest technologies available, which will help to better protect them. We will also support manufacturers registering the details of the purchaser at the point of sale, this will enable Police to identify the true owner. Small businesses can utilise aftermarket security to mark equipment cheaply and efficiently, van manufacturers can provide more theft resistant cargo areas to secure their contents, and we will also continue to encourage safer parking areas in hotels and car parks for work vans parked overnight. By embracing these aims we can make a big difference!

Last year, together with NCATT, the CESAR team and industry partners, we trained over 500 police officers from regionals forces, this gave them an insight into identifying criminal networks targeting our industries. This included both plant and tool identification and recognising rogue movements and logistics of stolen plant and equipment.

We will continue to hold these special training events throughout 2024, across the Country, to enable police officers from all forces to better understand the problems our industries face.

We also aim to hold a number of cybercrime events, highlighting the huge danger that international E-criminals can wreak to businesses and the tricks to look out for to prevent you from becoming a victim.

Finally in the last quarter of 2024 we hope to run our main conference combining all the above subjects which will include panel discussions with both industry and Police experts. We will also be inviting exhibitors along to demonstrate their latest products and innovations to the audience to help reduce theft. More information will appear on the website over the coming weeks.

So please look around the site, use what reference materials may be of use and utilise them. Moreover become involved, and join our partnerships! If you like what you see become a member!

2024 is going to be a busy year! Please get involved and help with these challenges!

If you are interested in joining us and helping to fight the criminals then please contact Faye, by emailing her at faye@cits.uk.com.

Ian Elliott
CITS Chairman and Group Head of Security at the Clancy Group.
February 2024.