POLICE AND INDUSTRY CONTINUE TO WORK IN PARTNERSHIP TO COMBAT CRIME
The Combined Industry Theft Solutions (CITS) group, in partnership with police and partners, held the second training event of 2025 in West Yorkshire.
On the 7th May 2025, the CITS police training event took place at Burntwood Court with the support of Hitachi Construction. The event was hosted in conjunction with the National Construction and Agricultural Theft Team (NCATT), Police liaison officers of the official CESAR Scheme, and representatives of Cantrack Global, NFU Mutual, Leica, Clancy’s and J Murphy & Son’s.
The special police training event welcomed over 60 police officers from regional and specialist police forces. The officers attended a full day's training, which was opened by CITS chairman Ian Elliott, the Group Head of Security for the utility company Clancy’s.
The training was delivered by both specialist police training officers and industry experts, a specialist briefing was given by international police liaison officer, DS Chris Piggott, of NCATT and Police Liaison officers on behalf of the official CESAR Scheme, a special briefing was also given by John Musset, Director of Investigations at Cantrack Global, and Kirsty Hyslop of NFU Mutual. The trainers all taught officers about current threats around Construction and Agricultural machinery theft and highlighted techniques to identify stolen machinery, rogue equipment movements and common tricks used by criminal gangs to target industry.
The training event was 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. Officers also had the opportunity to learn about the new RAPID search application. RAPID, the Registered Assets Police Information Database, is a powerful web-based search tool designed to significantly enhance the speed and efficiency of plant and machinery identification. With advanced mobile technology, RAPID enables officers to access the CESAR Database of over 650,000 registered assets directly from their smartphones, allowing for quick identification of stolen property and swift progress in investigations.
CITS Chairman Ian Elliott commented on the success of the day: “Yesterday’s event was another great success and we are delighted to continue to support officers with their further training, the feedback so far really highlights the importance of these events, which help support all police forces to tackle the organised criminal gangs that are making theft a huge problem for farmers and industry.
CITS in partnership with police, crime-fighting organisations and machinery manufacturers provide officers with the knowledge and detection techniques to combat equipment theft, in order to be one step ahead of the criminals.”
Jordan Chapman, Digital Solutions Manager at Hitachi, commented on the day: “Hitachi Construction Machinery UK Ltd is proud to support CITS and be part of this valuable police training initiative. As theft tactics continue to evolve, we believe collaboration across the industry is essential. Our commitment is not only to innovation and security but, most importantly, to our customers — helping them protect their investments and operate with confidence. Through partnerships like this, we can collectively build a safer, more secure future for everyone in the construction and plant sector.”
The ‘police only’ CITS training events have been rolled out since 2022, aiming to highlight the current threats and the importance of working in partnerships to tackle crime, in partic-ular to the construction and agricultural sectors.
CITS, an industry forum comprising of representatives from the Home Office, Police, Insurers and Industry will continue to host a series of further, free to attend, police only training events in 2025. Officers should register their interest for future events, with faye@cits.uk.com
The next training event will take place on the 6th June, hosted by TVL, in Essex. Further details can be found on the CITS website www.cits.uk.com
