POLICE AND INDUSTRY PARTNERED TOGETHER FOR A SPECIAL POLICE TRAINING EVENT AT LEICA’S OFFICES IN SURREY
The Combined Industry Theft Solutions (CITS) group, in partnership with police and industry partners, held a special police training event at Leica, Hexagon on the 14th July 2026.
On the 14th July 2026, police and leading security experts from industry came together for a special one-day training event. The event was opened by the Surrey Deputy Chief Constable, Mark McEwan, supported by CITS Vice Chairman and J Murphy & Son’s head of security, Seumas Ascott and DS Chris Piggott of the National Construction and Agricultural Theft Team (NCATT).
The event supported by J Murphy & Son’s and hosted at Leica Hexagon’s impressive offices, received an Introduction to Surrey Rural Crime with Chief Inspector Christopher Tinney and input from, Insp Rob Brian and Sgt Phil Bayman of Surrey Police.
Peter Shuttleworth, Electronic Security Systems Manager, Southern Water Protective Security Team, also gave a briefing on the challenges faced in the current economic climate.
Input was also given by Vincent Lane the Police liaison officer of the official CESAR security marking Scheme and Mark Francis, Market Segment Manager, Leica Geosystems.
The event welcomed over 80 police officers from local forces. These special CITS organised police training events are aimed to highlight the current threats and the importance of working in partnerships to tackle crime, in particular to the construction and agricultural sectors. These events are also supported by the Home Office industry scheme, CESAR.
Officers also had the opportunity to learn about the new Registered Asset Police Infor-mation Database (RAPID) search application. RAPID is a powerful web-based search tool de-signed to significantly enhance the speed and efficiency of plant and machinery identifica-tion. With advanced mobile technology, RAPID enables officers to access the CESAR Data-base of over 700,000 registered assets directly from their smartphones, allowing for quick identification of stolen property and swift progress in investigations.
Seumas Ascott CITS Vice 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. CITS are pleased to be able to aid the training of offices regionally and to help raise awareness. The feedback from the officers on the day was exceptionally positive and makes the efforts from all involved worthwhile.”
Chief Inspector Chris Tinney, Rural Crime Lead Surrey Police commented,
“This was a brilliant event by CITS with really positive feedback from our officers that attended. The speakers provided not only interesting but operationally useful inputs to our officers who without a doubt come away from the day with a far greater capability to help tackle acquisitive crime within our rural and construction industry communities.”
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 CITS training events are invaluable to aid police in recovering more stolen equipment.
The next police training event will take place on the 29th September at Flannery’s, Darlington.
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. 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
