Project Griffin
Project Griffin has been in place since April 2004 as a project
to bring together the Police, local authorities, private sector
security industry, the emergency services and other agencies in
order to coordinate effort by working together to deter, disrupt
and support pro-active operations regarding terrorist/extremist
activity within the local area.
Since its original launch by the City and Metropolitan police
forces, Project Griffin has been identified nationally as good
practice and is now well established in a number of airports and
police force areas around the UK, as well as abroad - for example
Canada and Australia.
Project Griffin aims to encourage members of the community to
work in partnership with the police to deter and detect terrorist
activity and crime. This will be achieved by working with the
community to:-
- Raise awareness of current terrorist and crime issues
- Share and gather intelligence and information
- Build and maintain effective working relationships
- Seek solutions to defeating terrorism and crime
- Maintain trust and confidence in the Police and other
authorities
- Empower people to report suspicious activity and
behaviour.
The main strand of Project Griffin is very much about the police
sharing information with key trusted partners in the community, by
providing input through an ‘Awareness Day’.
Awareness Days
The Awareness Day is delivered in a structured way, covering
topics such as the current threat level, hostile reconnaissance,
recognising the components of an explosive device and
person/vehicle borne devices helping to galvanise and motivate
participants to want to work with the Police. The City of London
Police runs a Griffin awarenss day on the first Thursday of every
month.
Who is eligible to attend?
Project Griffin aims to work with people who are involved in
some way with the safety and security of a building, business or
area and to empower them to recognise and report suspicious
activity and behaviour to the police. These staff could range
from security to front of house reception. The Awareness Day also
serves to help people think about their own local procedures and
processes for dealing with certain types of incident during times
of emergency.
Engaging and empowering people, is the first stage to building
relationships and encouraging reporting. Additional concepts
around providing information by means of a regular ‘Bridge Call’
and agreeing protocols to assist police resources (in times of
extremis) with support for cordons and high visibility patrolling
are all tried and tested initiatives which also help to maintain
participants involvement and make them feel like part of the
extended police family.
Emergency deployment
Where local protocols are in place, the police may request
participating organisations to make available Project Griffin
trained personnel.
When Project Griffin personnel are deployed alongside the police
they will work under the direction of the police utilising civilian
powers.
The police may also request participating companies and
organisations to increase visibility around their own premises and
request that Project Griffin personnel undertake and increase
exterior patrols of their buildings to increase high visibility
patrolling in the local area.
Contact details
If you represent a City business and feel that your organisation
could benefit from Project Griffin, please contact us by email.
Email:
ProjectGriffin@cityoflondon.police.uk
Visit website at
www.projectgriffin.org.uk
For non-urgent crime prevention advice contact your local crime
prevention officer.