Logan City Council covers 68 suburbs spread over 957 square kilometres. 70% of the city is rural, semi-rural or land for conservation. It also has 2,633 hectares of wetlands and 2,177 kilometres of waterways, adding to the complexity of providing security services for Council assets in these areas. Council has over $6 billion in assets.
Council has the fifth largest population in Australia with 308,681 residents and is increasing its population by 2% each year. 31% of the population is aged under 20 years. The population is made up of 217 ethnicities, with 26% of people born overseas. This diversity of population is an added element to controlling crowds with our staff needing to be trained in diversity and having the ability to communicate with people from all backgrounds. (http://www.logan.qld.gov.au/about- logan/living-in-logan/statistics-and-facts).
For Logan City Council Queensland Security Services currently provides:
- Mobile patrols to all Council assets
- Alarm Responses
- Reporting and documenting damage or public safety hazards
- Liaising with local police on incidents
- Responding as required to incidents 24 hrs a day
- Static guards at various council sites
- Loss prevention officers on a weekly basis at various council sites
- Crowd control at Council and private events.
We also provide security for Logan City Council’s Eats N Beats monthly community event.
We provide 10 to 40 guards at any given time as needed for events and every day security requirements. We source 85% of our guards from the local area, which ensures that the majority of guards used have local knowledge and a vested interest in the security of their community. Currently we have 27 dog handlers, 13 mobile patrols and 24 consistently employed crowd controllers that service Council’s security needs. We also have another 78 casual staff to call on for big events or when our workload exceeds our usual turnover.
When we first commenced with Logan City Council reporting and transparency were issues of concern. Council had never received consistent reports from its previous security suppliers. We developed an online reporting solution, which we implemented and delivered to Council. Council now has at its disposal reports that have been logged electronically going to the right person, with 1381 reports generated and sent in order of urgency to the correct department in the 2015-16 financial year.
The issue of monitoring staff on duty was a concern to Council. We have our own GPS monitoring so GPS solutions for both vehicles and personnel working alone was not an issue. Many of our staff are monitored when on site with GPS monitors with ‘man down’ detection, allowing us to respond very quickly if our guards are ever assaulted or injured.
Not all at risk areas of Council assets were monitored. In problem areas we installed our own video back-to-base monitoring services. This is over and above the job specifications from Council but it assists us in providing the best coverage of Council assets and minimises the risk of break-ins.
Council had concerns that the previous security provider’s staff did not always present in a professional manner to Council and the public. All our staff are vetted and trained to present in a professional manner in their dealings with our clients and the public. Council now has the added value that we are a Registered Training Organisation that offers courses to our staff ranging from management and business to dog training and security. All our staff have received training in communication skills, resulting in a professional team of security personnel.
As a result of our professionalism and ability to address Logan City Council’s concerns, we have been able to provide a superior security service for the past eight years.