POLICE AND INDUSTRY PARTNERED TOGETHER FOR A SPECIAL POLICE TRAINING EVENT
The Combined Industry Theft Solutions (CITS) group, in partnership with police and partners, held the final 2025 police training event in conjunction with Southern Water.
On the 20th November 2025, police and leading security experts from industry came together for a one day training event at the East Sussex hotel.
The event welcomed over 100 police officers and was opened by CITS Chairman Ian Elliott, followed by a presentation from Peter Shuttleworth, Electronic Security Systems Manager, Southern Water Protective Security Team.
Input was also given by specialist officer DS Chris Piggott from the National Construction and Agricultural theft team (NCATT) and Police liaison officers of the official CESAR security marking Scheme.
The specialist event welcomed the police officers from regional and specialist police forces. These invaluable events are aimed to highlight the current threats and the importance of working in part-nerships to tackle crime, in particular to the construction and agricultural sectors. The events are also 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 also had the opportunity to learn about the new RAPID search applica-tion. The recently launched RAPID system, is a Registered Assets Police Information Database and 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.
Ian Elliott CITS Chairman commented on the success of the day,
“These training events are invaluable to forces especially in times of scarce resource, at CITS we promote a partnership approach to help deter theft in our sectors. The feedback from the officers on the day was exceptionally positive and makes the efforts from all involved worthwhile.”
Peter Shuttleworth commented,
“It was an insightful day focused on crime reduction solutions and a valuable opportunity for me to share Southern Water’s security approach, legal requirements, and challenges. The key takeaway: Police, the Construction Industry, and Southern Water must continually improve ways of working together to protect assets and reduce crime.”
CITS work in partnership with police, crime-fighting organisations and machinery manufacturers to provide officers with the knowledge and detection techniques to combat equipment theft, in order to be one step ahead of the criminals. The training events are invaluable to aid police in recovering more stolen equipment.
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 2026. 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
