POLICE AND INDUSTRY CONTINUE TO WORK IN PARTNERSHIP TO COMBAT CRIME - POLICE TRAINING EVENT AT TVL
The Combined Industry Theft Solutions (CITS) group, in partnership with police and partners, held the third police training event of 2025 at the Headquarters of Trade Vehicle Lock (TVL), in Essex.
On the 6 June 2025, a further CITS police training event took place at the headquarters of vehicle innovation providers TVL, in Brentwood, Essex. 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 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 and Supt, Andrew Huddle-ston of NCATT.
These specialist training events are designed to strengthen the response to rural crime and thieves targeting construction sites, a vital and productive knowledge-sharing event, bringing together industry experts and those on the frontline, including officers, PCSOs and police staff from Essex, Hertfordshire, London, Surrey, Kent and Sussex.
A special presentation highlighting the issues of van theft was given by both TVL Managing Di-rector, Laura Moran and Director Tony Powell.
The training was also 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. 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.
These specialist training events are supported by the Home Office industry scheme, CESAR, the number one identification marking system used by Police to easily identify ownership of plant and machinery used on both farms and construction sites. Officers were also able 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: “The event was another great success and we are delighted to be able to continue to support officers across the regions with their further training, the feedback really highlights the importance of these events, which help support all police across all 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. On behalf of the CITS Board a huge thank you goes to TVL for supporting the event, without such partnerships these events could not continue.”
TVL, MD, Laura Moran commented; “Today’s event was an invaluable Initiative to help ensure frontline officers have the tools, skills and insight they need to keep you safe, and we’re really proud to have been a part of it.”
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 particular 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 23rd September at the Plantworx Event at Newark show ground. Further details can be found on the CITS website www.cits.uk.com
