theft from churches - pitsford village · 2018. 10. 2. · police checks of scrap metal dealers...

THEFT FROM

CHURCHES

SAM DOBBS Daventry District Sergeant

Telephone 03000 111222

Extension 343805 | Mobile 07712 193705

Email | [email protected] Twitter | @sgtsamdobbs

mailto:[email protected]

GPMS | Not protectively marked

Sgt Sam Dobbs | ‘Brain-dump’ on church metal thefts 2

‘BRAIN-DUMP’ on CHURCH METAL THEFT Sergeant Sam Dobbs | Daventry Police | March 2016

Why I’m writing

his document is provided to serve as a follow-up and update for the successful metal theft/heritage crime seminar held at Althorp House at the end of 2015. As you may know, the seminar attracted considerable

media interest, and pulled together in one room a large number of interested parties, including many local church people, as well as officers and staff from the policing family, and representatives from the security and insurance industries. I also hope that this document assists others who were not present at the event, so in giving an update, I may go over ground that we covered at the seminar. There’s a lot of ground to cover, so you may need a few cups of coffee or glasses of gin to sup whilst reading. But I hope that the context will be helpful so that as an interested party, you are fully briefed and informed on metal theft from churches. I hope to cover the following basic areas:

Why I’m writing this report

Similarities, differences and lessons from 2007

The current problem

Responses to the current threat

Offences in Northamptonshire

Prevention, Roof alarms and EIG

Police response to roof alarms and 999 calls

Assessing whether you need a roof alarm

Steps you can take if you cannot afford an alarm

Target hardening and crime prevention I should stress that this document is not intended to be text-book material on the subject – I have described it as more of a ‘brain-dump’ on what I know and have learned in the past while. I am in touch with (and am grateful to) leading people in the Diocese of Peterborough, as well as in the security industry as well Directors at EIG. I also liaise with Geoffrey Probert at the Suffolk Historic Churches Trust – an absolute wealth of information and ideas on theft of metal and protecting churches. And of course, with local contacts I keep in touch with lots of local church folk and ministers through Archdeacon Richard Ormston and Rural Dean Stephen Trott, which gives access to the Diocese, General Synod and Heritage England. I don’t profess for this document to be squeaky clean corporate or spun. Reality tells me that these thefts from churches are not priorities for policing. Despite being massive in terms of value and impact, they are low in numbers in each county and too low to feature on the all-crime radar. However, they have massive impact on rural crime, perceptions of crime and often show how better we could do policing when criminals rely on the complications created by our borders or regional boundaries to move between the counties and desecrate our places of worship.

T



Introducing me

am not a specialist in investigating heritage/rural/metal crime. I am a neighbourhood police sergeant with Northamptonshire Police and my patch covers the Daventry District – one of the largest council districts in England

with around 70 parishes. Of those parishes, only four are not rural, and we have a small and enthusiastic team of local officers and response officers. In my previous role, I was Staff Officer to the Chief Constable and in that role I had a fair amount to do with the last spate of metal theft in and around 2007, when the metal market in South-East Asia in the approach to the Beijing Olympics, which may explain my current interest and involvement with the problem. At that time, I worked closely with the Diocese of Peterborough and its Archdeacons, and presented to many groups of church folk on how to protect their churches. Since then, I have moved to the Daventry District, which is the area where I live and go to church myself. I am an organist and PCC Secretary and have served on Brixworth Deanery Synod. My benefice is one of six churches. In the past ten years, two of those churches have been burgled and we have been victims of three metal thefts with lead being stolen from the roof. I have written Faculty applications and seen the pain, hassle and worry caused by these crimes. With my family buried in the churchyard, I have some real empathy and ownership. I ‘get’ the angst caused to the local community, (churchgoing or not,) by an attack on our beautiful and much-loved village churches. In many cases, they have stood for hundreds of years as places of sanctuary, protection, forgiveness, solidarity and where many families and friends have come together to see life begin, end and where lives are joined. Without wishing to sound twee, I have stood in a church and marvelled at the legacy I have inherited, thinking of the hundreds of thousands of people who have stood in my footsteps in the hundreds of years past, and I baulk at the duty we all share in passing on the baton to next generations. The mists and peace of my twee reflection are then shattered when I look up to see the skies through the holes in the roof after thieves have desecrated a holy place. So I am no expert on this stuff, other than that which my personal experience and twenty five years of policing give me. For better or for worse, I get sent or copied in on oodles of emails on the subject (because I took an interest) and have to weave this stuff into my day job (where there is a natural fit but always more demand than capacity). It has taken me two months to sit and write this. All that is a long-winded explanation or maybe an excuse for not having responded in a timely fashion to many of your emails asking for assistance or advice in relation to protecting churches. I hope this update makes up for that.

I



Is history repeating itself?

n opening the seminar at Althorp, Andy Frost, our Deputy Chief Constable, and lifetime local resident, mentioned the differences between the 2007 epidemic of metal theft and the current one. In 2007, demand for metal on

the Asian markets ahead of the Beijing Olympics saw a spike in metal values, set against a relatively unregulated scrap metal industry. It opened up the opportunity for petty criminals and more organised gangs, to steal any amount of metal. We saw thefts from church roofs, for sure, but also manhole covers, street signs, flashing from houses, farm gates – anything that could be sold for cash and melted down. It’s what Angus Brown from Ebound security calls the ‘white diamond and packet of fags’ crimes – thefts to score a quick win. I remember St Matthew’s Northampton being hit by teenagers who cut off the lead flashing they could reach, for a quick £200. We caught them, yet the penalty was minimal. However, there was also a concerted attack on churches. Claims for metal theft from churches rose exponentially and in a way that the insurance industry could not manage. Churches were soft targets, as they were difficult to protect, there were no bespoke security products invented, they were/are largely remotely situated, used rarely and victim of the sadly naieve paradigm that ‘nobody would steal from God’s house, surely?’ As a result, the main church insurers, including Ecclesiastical Insurance Group (EIG) took steps to control and limit claims (and, therefore, premiums). Working with Smartwater, a forensic marking solution, every church was given protective advice and cover was reduced to £5k (increased to £7.5k from 1/2/15) for churches protected by Smartwater. No theft of metal cover is provided if Smartwater was not applied, registered and signage displayed. This now meant that if a church was attacked, it would be church reserves, not insurance companies, which would have to swallow the average £20-30k losses from an average roof metal theft. At St Mary’s East Haddon, we were attacked twice in a week. The total loss of lead was valued at around £4-5k but to us the total loss was around £15k due to the collateral damage to masonry and architects requirement to reconstruct the vestry roof at a different pitch. After the Beijing Olympics, the metal market slumped and the problem appeared to reduce. Most churches had by now done something to become more secure, if only by way of vigilance and security plans. EIG beefed up its crime prevention service to PCCs and offered regular site surveys. At one of my churches, we linked exterior movement detectors to our existing intruder alarm, installed a mobile phone link, so that our lead was protected. We gained no additional insurance cover from that, but we would know (and could therefore minimise loss) if someone was on the roof. For interest, this cost around £1.5k in 2008.

I



Shortly afterwards, Government introduced legislation to regulate the scrap metal industry. It made it difficult (though not 100% impossible) to exchange scrap for cash. Monies now have to be paid into bank accounts and identification verified. Police checks of scrap metal dealers were built into everyday policing activity. This had a considerable impact on the problem, but just as shotgun regulation does not stop the criminal acquiring a gun on the black market, there are still outlets in the UK, if not in readily-accessible Europe to which metal thieves can resort.

The current problem

ntil 2015, therefore, this became less of a problem again, and we all relaxed. But last year, we saw a steady rise in attacks on churches with a different modus operandi. Whereas in 2007 we were looking at small

areas of lead being stolen, the 2015 crimes featured whopping amounts of lead – entire church roofs – disappearing overnight and without a trace or anyone knowing. The techniques used by thieves included the following, which indicates the sinister and new ways that metal theft had morphed in 2015 and to the current day:

In one Yorkshire parish, the village was coned off with traffic diversions overnight. Men in fluorescent jackets in vans with flashing orange lamps appeared to be laying cables or repairing utilities. In fact, they were stripping and carting off tonnes of lead from the church roof. As recently as February 2016, police were called to a Daventry parish at 4am where the local milkman reported the Main Street coned off by men wearing head-torches. They were thwarted in whatever they were doing, but the common thought is that they were on a ‘recce’ to steal from the church (which was due to have its roof alarm fitted in two days’ time!)

In a Suffolk parish, the thieves would strip the roof one night, pile up the lead the following night and remove it. When challenged, they passed off as roof repairers

In a Northamptonshire parish, six weeks prior to a massive lead theft, a drone was seen (but not reported) apparently surveilling the church roof for over three hours on a Sunday afternoon

Thieves would say how they use Google Earth to look for church roofs where there is a high value roof covering. They would use local petty criminals to ‘suss out’ the next victim.

Intelligence would suggest that organised crime groups (OCGs) were responding to a specific demand in the market for lead – possibly not even in the UK – and that with the new and easy ways to access Europe, stolen metals could be out of the UK overnight and being melted down in the Netherlands or other countries.

U



At one thwarted offence in the East Midlands, a satnav was seized in a vehicle also seized after thieves were disturbed and fled. This devices was forensically examined and found to have 80 points of interest saved to its memory – all churches with high values of lead on the roof.

Work with Smartwater and EIG identified a national increase but also groups of Eastern European gangs working across the East Midlands and Eastern counties targeting country churches. With our ability to track number plates, much intelligence has been gained, and there have been arrests and prosecutions. But as one OCG is identified and removed, another will spring up in its place.

Work with the East coast ports has made exporting the stolen goods more difficult, but we now believe that other North-Eastern UK ports are being used by the thieves.

I have recently been alerted to successful prosecutions of known criminals in the East Midlands, and know that there is a Crown Prosecution solicitor dedicated to Heritage and Metal crime. I mention this to reassure that there is some intelligence and enforcement success.

There is more the police can do to work together, and it mystifies Geoffrey Probert from Suffolk Historic Churches Trust why we are not more ‘joined-up’. Feedback from insurers, loss adjusters and people like Geoffrey cannot work out why the majority of ‘joined-up-ness’ is as a result of officers and teams with local interest dotted all around the country, trapped by our county and regional boundaries, and handcuffed by what is a priority and what is not. Often I rely on EIG and Smartwater more than I do police information systems, to keep me abreast of these matters. One loss adjuster dealing with £150k worth of church lead thefts in the West Midlands wrote to me to say that the majority of her claims were clearly linked by time, modus operandi and value. Yet the investigation was vested in a local constable who ‘did not believe that this was organised crime’ and was probably local thieves (unknown), as a result of which the crime would be filed undetected. The loss adjuster asked why the police forces cannot talk to each other. I share the concerns, and do what I can to influence where I can.

At the seminar, I commented on criticism that, because of our drive to manage excessive demand (see later comments on Threat, Harm and Risk), local churches attacked by metal thieves had not received a visit from police or forensic investigators. I accept the criticism, tempered with the fact that there were other pressing policing demands at the time. I also stressed that there is a two-way challenge here. I expect local officers to know who their local church contacts are (as part of the stakeholder community). However, I don’t consider it unreasonable for parishes and church community to find out who their local officer is too. If we get that two way rapport right, then if you call us and we don’t come, there is nothing to stop you asking for your local officer to come and visit you in



slower time. You can ask when s/he is next on duty and its better if you know who it is. Conversely, I have asked all my officers to keep an eye and ear open for church crime, and to ensure that follow-up visits are made, and I have evidence of that happening and reaping rich dividends in community policing and contacts.

Responses to the threat

s crime develops, so does technology, and so do demands for crime prevention creating some interesting challenges and openings for churches and insurers alike. Within the security industry, there are

plenty of products for protecting internal spaces, and some for protection of exterior spaces. But there had not been demand for bespoke roof protection systems, probably because they would be too expensive, complicated to install/operate, a nightmare to wire into listed buildings, and because there is no national standard or guaranteed police response to an alarm which could be activated by any external source such as animals and the elements. EIG identified a number of firms with whom the company worked to trial different systems which would best indicate and detect roof incursion whilst minimising false alarms. Over two years, a small number of companies proved to EIG that their product could protect church roofs in order for risk to be minimised. In August 2015, EIG (which insures many churches, and most of the Anglican churches in Northamptonshire) announced an important development. The company stated that if a church was to fund and install an alarm by one of the six or so ‘approved’ companies, they would be provided with full 100% insurance cover for metal theft. The systems are not cheap as they typically use modern wireless technology, often utilising cameras or movement detectors, with systems checks to remove false alarms, and are linked to alarm receiving centres (ARCs) for verification of genuine alarms and notifying keyholders. Many of the systems are linked to sirens and lights to ward off thieves, and are a result of years of costly research. Older systems with propensity for false alarms, or not linked to ARCs are not approved for 100% cover by EIG. The company offers to approve any system which meets its requirement, but these are stringent, (understandably, if the insurance cover wishes to minimise risk and protect our premiums). From our seminar it was clear that some church people object to the insurers nominating pre-approved alarm companies, or the costs to PCCs. Others felt that the police should not be supporting or being seen to support a small group of companies. However on the other hand, our rebuttal was simple and down to informed choice:

Given the increased risk, would a parish prefer to fork out £5k on a roof alarm system or determine a response plan to deal with a £50k loss if the lead from the roof was stolen?

A



Does the parish wish to sleep sound at night knowing that everyone will know if someone accesses the roof, or is the parish prepared to accept the consequential loss of a further £30k because someone steals the roof, nobody knows, and the organ beneath the roof is permanently damaged by water ingress as a result?

The Archdeacon of Northampton has been hugely supportive of a plan that wherever possible, churches at risk should install roof alarms or have a debated PCC minute to record why a PCC has decided not to. The Diocese of Peterborough has bent over backwards to ease up the process for granting permission to instal EIG-approved roof alarms, almost to the following degree:

1. Use an approved EIG contractor 2. Tell the Archdeacon 3. Ensure the installation is approved and minuted by your PCC 4. Submit the plans to your church architect for oversight 5. Submit the plans from the contractor to the DAC 6. Instal the alarm in quicker time 7. Let the faculty application and the paperwork catch up



Offences in Northamptonshire

s at March 2016, I take no pleasure in listing the following incidents involving churches in and near the county in the past year:

St Mary’s Brington – largescale lead theft from Chancel & Chapel roof. Possible use of drone. Damage to tombs – August 2015

All Saints’ Lilbourne – largescale theft of lead stolen from Nave roof – two farm gates forced to gain access to north side with damage to masonry, windows and tombs – August/September 2015

St Andrew’s Arthingworth – lead theft from organ vestry with £30k damage to organ beneath – now unusable as no funds to repair – September 2015

St Michael’s Haselbech – man reported tampering with lead on roof the same week of large scale cable theft from nearby windfarm. Two Romanian women stopped by police nearby and car seized – Autumn 2015

St Mary’s Weldon – largescale theft of lead from chancel roof with damage to masonry and tombs – October 2015

St Nicholas’ Overstone – two metal gravestones, 175 years old, stolen from graveyard. Suspect vehicle details taken – November 2015

St Mary’s Fawsley – largescale theft of copper roof with considerable damage to masonry and water ingress. Romanian cigarette packet found in churchyard – November 2015

St Nicholas, Marston Trussell – 60m of lead stripped and stolen from north Chancel roof – November 2015

All Saints’ Lamport – burglary/theft from church and subsequent reports of suspicious men around church area on different occasions – January 2016

All Saints’ Flore* – large scale theft of lead from south aisle and chancel roof (repeat victim) – January 2016

St Helen’s Sibbertoft* – largecale theft of lead from 2/3rds of nave roof following compromise of roof alarm and CCTV cameras (under church, police and insurance company investigation) – January 2016

St James the Greater, Little Dalby* – just across our border in Leicestershire – third repeat – lead stolen from south aisle roof and and porch – February 2016

A



St Peter’s, Kirby Bellars*, again in Leicestershire – copper stripped from south aisle roof and nave – February 2016

St Mary the Virgin, Badby* – suspicious circumstances – disturbance to copper folded back on roof in possible preparation for theft – February 2016

St Mary the Virgin, East Haddon* – suspicious circumstances – men wearing headtorches cone off the road outside the church at 4am, disturbed by milkman – February 2016

St Michael’s Haselbech* - following incident in late 2015, churchwardens install EIG roof alarm. Suspicious circumstances reported from alarm receiving centre at dusk, February 2016, re seven tamper signals indicating interference with alarm system or thieves doing a recce of system

St Bartholomew’s Greens Norton* – Firstly, leaking roof reveals an attempt to remove lead (none stolen) then in second incident, lead stripped from south aisle roof and organ roof – February 2016

The crimes marked with an asterisk are in 2016. Other crimes are since August 2015. Since starting this report, I am informed that yet more crimes are still prevalent in other nearby counties. For example… St Swithin’s Old Weston (Ely Diocese) was attacked in December 2015 when half the nave roof was stripped. In February 2016, thieves returned and stole more lead – the church has no lead on nave or north aisle roofs. More staggering is the reported theft of an entire stained glass window panel from St Mary & St Michael’s, Trumpington. I have also had reports of further lead thefts from churches in Sussex and Wales in February. By my reckoning, the total loss from the Northamptonshire incidents exceeds one quarter of a million pounds, and with the exception of Sibbertoft, was an uninsured loss to victims, save the first £7k of each claim. When many PCCs have minimal amounts of money in their reserves, such a loss is either not a situation from which they can recover or where years of work has to take place to fundraise, diverting the small congregations from mission and worship. As an organist, it grieves me to know that Arthingworth church cannot use its organ as the costs of repair from the water damage cannot be found. And yet even in my own Benefice of six churches, I am aware of one ‘at risk’ parish, with healthy capital reserves, which has a small amount of lead but covering a valuable pipe organ. I am aware of another parish where the churchwarden refused to apply Smartwater because he was not convinced of the benefits….. until the church was hit by metal thieves and wasn’t covered by insurance.



I keep trying to stress to PCCs that they/we are but mere guardians of these churches and we don’t have the right, without proper discussion and informed debate, to pass over important issues like roof alarms and crime prevention.

Prevention or cure?

he thrust of the seminar at Althorp was that the P of the police mnemonic PIE (Prevention, Intelligence, Enforcement) is the most cost effective. Preventing crime is key, and we do this through education and

engagement, using technology and commonsense combined. This is why the police fully support EIG in their drive and bid to encourage churches to find the resources to install roof alarms approved by the insurers to prevent crime and minimise loss/damage. Geoffrey Probert, from the Suffolk Historic Churches Trust, described the work he has spearheaded in Suffolk. Like Norfolk, Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Northamptonshire, Suffolk has been plagued with massive lead thefts from churches – eleven in one fortnight at the end of 2015. The Historic Churches Trust in Suffolk has worked with churches there to help fund roof alarms. Sadly, that initiative has not caught in Northamptonshire, but many many churches have taken up their own initiative to instal EIG-approved alarms which cost typically between £3.5 and £5.5k depending on the amount of roof requiring protecting. This will not just need to cover where the lead or copper is, but the access points to the roof also.

So what does an EIG-approved roof alarm do?

he roof alarms approved by the insurers have similar features which include (in the churches where I have been involved)

Installation of mains supply in bell tower, to which is connected a secure tamper-proof control box housing circuitry which receives radio feeds from any number of movement detector heads

Installation of siren loudspeaker and strobe lights in the louvers of the bell tower, only obvious when activated. When activated, the speaker delivers an incredibly loud recorded message and sounds an alarm.

Installation of a multi-SIM GSM communicator which is linked to a 24hr ARC which can interrogate the alarm signal to discern a genuine roof incursion

Installation of discreet, tamper-proof, wireless/radio movement detectors at the points of access to the roof and where there is

T

T



valuable metal. These are designed and programmed to detect movement of humans, not birds or animals

The system is armed permanently by default, and can only be deactivated using a fob or by contacting the ARC. Within these processes there are security procedures which make deactivation foolproof and timed.

Installation usually takes between 1-2 days depending on the scale of the risk area

And what happens when activated?

he system responds to an activation of the detectors by immediately sounding the siren and strobe lights which instruct the intruder that their presence has been detected and that assistance is being called and to

leave the roof immediately. Or, if cameras are linked to the system, the ARC verifies the presence of intruders and activates the speakers and message The ARC communicates the verified alarm to either a keyholder nominated by the church, or a security company keyholder (which is an enhanced feature of some alarm companies). The police favour the security company option The keyholder may wish to check the activation or to call the police depending on the circumstances (more on the police response later)

In cases where alarmed churches have been activated, other non-alarmed churches have been attacked within the hour. In a case where an alarmed church has been attacked, but where there has been a system fault, the insurer would seek to reimburse the policy holder and recover costs from those at fault (if any).

The good news is that in virtually every case, activation of the roof alarm has scared the thieves away without even damaging one strip of lead or masonry; because if surveyed and installed properly, the easy access points will be heavily alarmed.

So if we install an approved roof alarm and it activates, and we call the police, will they come?

he police service still smarts from the days when it had to attend burglar alarms linked to ARCs when 95% of those burglar alarm activations were false alarms. Modern conventional alarms now have to be of a

certain specification which, in order to prompt a police response, communicate to an ARC what is called a ‘confirmed’ activation. Normally this will be the activation of two specific devices in the alarm installation – like a

T

T



glassbreak detector activation followed by a door opening or a movement detector activating sequentially. Even so, many of these confirmed alarms are still what we would call false. In addition, because of over-demand and resource management, all calls to the police are rightly assessed, based on the criteria of threat, harm and risk, and our response will be according to the threat, harm and risk of other calls for our service at the time. I have been asked for a definitive answer to the police response question, which can be quoted and cited. For all the reasons given here, even the Chief Constable nor, therefore, I can give a guaranteed hard and fast response to the question ‘Will the police come?’ It will depend on all the surrounding circumstances. But never forget that none of us want to pass the opportunity to catch criminals, so we’ll always do our best. We will always treat a crime in progress as an emergency. But we prioritise the calls to which we respond. Threat to life or person will always come before threat to property, and confirmed crimes/offences in progress will always come before less urgent or threatening calls. All that said, callers can assist the police call handler with providing best information to allow us to respond. Compare the following illustrative call logs and how it is possible to build the picture for the call handler rather than just use the first sentence. The alarm has just activated at our church. I am ringing to report something suspicious - may be a crime in progress. There is a spate of high value thefts from church roofs. Our church has a huge amount of lead & we have installed a roof alarm. The monitoring centre has told me that the alarm has activated which

means someone is on the roof The alarm sounds locally and continues to sound whilst there is

movement on the roof. It is still sounding and I can hear it There is a white van parked suspiciously near the church I can hear banging or noises from the usually quiet churchyard The caveat will always remain that whatever the call, if a life is at risk elsewhere, that risk-to-life call will take priority and a roof alarm will always take the lesser priority. But if the roof alarm 999 caller gives the police all the information as detailed above, as opposed to just the first line, it will help us hugely in doing what we want to do which is to catch criminals. And don’t forget – even if the criminals are still not on the scene, we still want to be in the area in case the thieves have activated your alarm, and have been scared off resulting in them targeting an unalarmed church elsewhere in the locality.



How do I know whether I need an alarm?

sk your architect to tell you whether you have a sizeable proportion of lead or copper in/on your church. Do you have easy roof access? Whilst copper theft has been rare, predominantly because there is no

copper smelting provision in the UK, we are concerned that the attack on Fawsley Church was for copper in large amounts, that copper is harder to remove and strip than lead (so the collateral damage to masonry is increased), and that copper roofs should not be overlooked in assessing risk. If yours is one of the 7,000 churches in England which have large quantities of lead or copper, you should consider installing an alarm. At St Mary’s, Dallington, when a lead substitute was used to repair a lead theft, the church was still attacked and suffered damage as the thieves tried to steal and compromise the roof until they realised they weren’t dealing with lead.

Why are churches replacing lead with lead?

ome lead has not yet worn out after 300 years. We don’t yet know the durability of some of the lead substitutes. Lead is malleable in strange contours where substitutes are not. Changing from lead to another

metal can be more complex because of various consents required from the Diocese and the local authority conservation officers (though both are helpful and realistic about the lead replacement debate and it should not be automatically assumed that a lead replacement will not be authorised.) One particular reason why one of my local churches replaced lead with lead is down to noise. Lead is a quieter roof covering when there is rain – very important in chancel and choir areas – and is still considered one of the best roofing options.

What should we do if we simply cannot afford an alarm?

y gut reaction and automatic response as a PCC member and local police officer with my knowledge of the context of churching and policing is to say you simply must afford an alarm. Consider applying

for assistance from local benefactors – I know of one parish where the local parish council has assisted because the building is considered to be a communal building in the locality But if you cannot, there are still lots of things you can do. Many of these initiatives are on the EIG website. Here are some suggestions:

Easy target? Make your church less of a target. If the boundary trees or hedges can hide thieves, trim them. Don’t leave ladders outside. Remember your wheelie-bins make excellent stools to get on vestry roofs and to cart away lead afterwards. Consider chaining them up on non-bin days. Install sensor lights. Have a rota of dog walkers who know they are welcome and encouraged to walk around the church

A

S

M



daily. Publish when approved roof works are ongoing and invite locals to report people on the roof at all times. Join a local Neighbourhood Watch Scheme or, if you have a NHW scheme that’s active, speak to the coordinator to have awareness of the church and risks raised with members. Ensure that someone goes into church daily and does a recce. Include looking up at the roof or investigating puddles indoors.

Smartwater is still a requirement of EIG. In order to have insurance cover, all churches must have Smartwater and for cover to be valid, it must fulfil three stipulations of the insurers – it must be applied properly, it must be registered and it must be signed using the signs provided. If all three are not actioned, and you have a theft, you will not have full (if any) insurance for metal theft. Even churches with roof alarms must have Smartwater applied. Don’t forget that if the police stop a van/car with lead on board, or find lead at a scrap dealer, we will examine with ultraviolet lamps. If Smartwater has been applied, it will be detected under ultraviolet light and a forensic examination will link it back to its place of origin (which is why there is the stipulation to register). Particles of Smartwater also attach themselves to the handler, which can often evidentially link people to stolen property or the crime scene.

Technology is all around us. A simple Google search for GSM alarms or driveway alarms will provide a plethora of devices from £50-£400. Whilst these devices in no way match the efficiency of a roof alarm, nor offer the 100% insurance cover, there will be something out there to assist you. I have just spent £50 on a device for my shed. It takes 3 AAA batteries and a pay as you go SIM card. Once installed and programmed (and you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to do it), I arm it when I lock my shed, with a supplied key fob. It texts me to say it is armed. If the shed is then entered without deactivating the alarm via the fob, I can choose for the kit to do any or all of the following:

(i) Activate a 98dB siren

(ii) Send a voicemail to my nominated phones saying the alarm has

been activated

(iii) Send a text to four mobile phones to say the alarm has been activated

If I want to spend a little more, I can install another device (around £400) which runs on long lasting batteries. This is a wireless movement driveway device which I can set to arm manually or on a timer. If activated, it will wirelessly set off a sounder in my house plugged into the mains, to alert me to movement on my drive. For an extra £100 or so, it will also text me (for when I’m away from home.



Local DIY shops sell stand alone or sequential CCTV systems. I prefer a CCTV system which allows me to check out an activation on my phone via the many Apps available.

Deterrence | Thieves hate light, time and noise. Anything you can do which bathes them in light, make a lot of noise or incur time, will make you a harder target. Don’t forget that if you have church floodlighting, you could set the lighting to stay on longer. If your roof alarm activates, or even if you don’t have a roof alarm, and suddenly the lights are not on (because they have been smashed by thieves) or are casting shadows, these factors will add up to assist you with your narrative if you call 999 because the operators will look at the threat, harm and risk in order to get officers to the genuine crimes in progress.

Community | Don’t forget that the local community values the church building even if members don’t come to church. At one church, we noticed how mortified the community was, and how angry it was, when the church had a £40k lead theft. It was also staggered that nobody saw or heard anything. Galvanise the support of the local community. Write to neighbours, alert them to the risks and seek their support.

Responders | Have a ring-around system so if something suspicious is reported, the right people investigate in a way which keeps them safe. Don’t have an octogenarian churchwarden and her equally aged Labrador checking out shadows on the roof at midnight (with no disrespect to elderly churchwardens or Labradors!) Have a plan, risk assessed according to common sense. Always have two people attend an alarm or suspicious incident. We believe that many lead thefts are carried out by large gangs. Have your responder keep their distance with access to a mobile phone. Ensure that they know how to call the police and what information to give. Offenders should never be challenged. A watching brief from a safe location, communicating to the police is what is needed.

Local policing team | Ask for your local officer to visit. If a crime prevention survey is required, for more complex situations, the local officer can ask for a visit by the Force’s Crime Prevention team. Equally, you can ring your insurer and ask if there is a specialist who can conduct a site visit. But do remember, if the surveyor attends, identifies a risk which you do not then take action on, it may affect your insurance cover. You may have a member of your parish, benefice or deanery who has some experience in crime prevention. Ask them to help.

Building work | Remember that there are massively detailed rules about scaffolding and church security. Speak to your architect and insurer before authorising the erection of any scaffolding.



Article of interest in ‘The Independent’ – 9 October 2015

Sophisticated gangs using drones to target church roofs for their lead The resurgence of thefts has seen more than 200 churches fall victim to lead strippers

David Connett – The Independent

A view of St Mary's in Brington

Stealing lead from church roofs has become such a lucrative operation that gangs of

organised criminals are believed to be using drones and Google Earth to survey

targets before carrying out surgical raids to remove tonnes of metal worth tens of

thousands of pounds.

The resurgence of thefts, which last peaked four years ago, has seen more than 200

churches fall victim to lead strippers including 12 in Suffolk in a two-month period

this summer.

Some churches warn they face closure because their insurance cover is limited and

they are unable to meet the cost of the repairs.

Police, church leaders, insurance and security experts will meet later this month, at

Althorp House in Northamptonshire to discuss the problem. The local 13th-century

church in Great Brington, which has links to the family of the late Princess Diana,

saw 10 tons of lead worth an estimated £40,000 stolen from its roof in August.

http://www.independent.co.uk/author/david-connett



Police say some of the recent attacks have shown greater sophistication including the

use of drones to select church roofs with most lead.

At one Northamptonshire church, thieves cut through two padlocked farm gates,

extensively chopped down a hedge and laid down boards to reach the nave, which

was completely stripped of lead.

Thieves stole 12 tonnes of lead from the roof of St Mary's in Brington

Sergeant Sam Dobbs, of Northants Police said: “Community is at the heart of our

rural policing role. Parish churches are at the physical and spiritual centre of that

community, whether people go to church or not.

“In each of the parishes attacked there has been shock and revulsion at the desecration

of what is a place of worship, a living museum, and a symbol of stability for hundreds

of years.”

He said the average loss per church in the county had been in the region of £30,000

with insurance only covering £7,000. “Raising the balance is a gargantuan task for

those left to pick up the bits. One church not only has to replace the roof but has had

to condemn the organ which has been mindlessly ruined through the consequent water

damage,” he said.

Experts say they have been surprised by the rising numbers of churches hit. Attacks

peaked in 2010-11 prompting the government to set up the National Metal task force

to co-ordinate police efforts. They also passed the Scrap Metal Dealers Act forcing



dealers to be licensed. Cash payments for scrap metal have been banned since

December 2012.

Angus Brown, a director of church security firm E-Bound, believes the rise is the

result of organised gangs targeting churches. “The changes in the law resulted in

opportunist thieves going elsewhere. Recently, the churches have been carefully

chosen.

“Well organised, disciplined teams of people have come in working fast and removed

large amounts of lead and copper before disappearing.”

He said it wasn’t clear where the metal was going to be smelted but believed that it

was evident that loopholes in the Scrap Metal Dealers Act were being exploited.

Some church leaders have been critical of the police response to the thefts. One East

Midlands archdeacon, who asked not to be named, said police were reluctant to

investigate and declined to send forensic staff to examine the roof.

“It even took us ages to get through on the phone to report the theft in the first place.

They couldn’t be less interested,” he said.

Ecclesiastical Insurance, which insures more than 90 per cent of the country’s church

buildings said that while overall thefts had declined from a peak four years ago, it was

concerned about the recent increases.

St Mary the Virgin with St John’s in Great Brington has launched a public appeal to

raise the £40,000 needed to reroof the 13th-century Grade 1 listed church.



Conclusion There is always a balance to be struck when informing members of the public about crime. In Daventry, we live in one of the safest places in Northamptonshire. The police has to manage its resources smartly and whilst we don’t get everything right every time, I believe we are doing the best we can with the resources we’ve got, and you won’t get me bleating about cuts. Whatever is thrown at us, you can be assured of the maximum energy and commitment and my team to work with you and the community to keep our District safe. As you’ve seen, there’s loads you can do to keep yourself and your church safe. In order to do that, you need the information and context which I hope this brain-dump gives you. There’s a wealth more information on the internet, and the EIG website has a plethora of information documents on general security all the way down to detailed fact sheets to give to your architect if you are erecting scaffolding. Have we got a problem with heritage crime and church roofs? Yes, we have. EIG say that since the start of 2007, they have received more than 14,000 claims at an estimated cost of more than £33 million, the majority of which are from churches. There is a plethora of self-help from EIG – go to eeclesiastical.com and search for ‘metal theft’, or use the following link. http://www.ecclesiastical.com/churchmatters/churchguidance/churchsecurity/theftofmetal/index.aspx On this site is an an easy-to-use self-assessment tool to see how at risk your church might be, and EIG can advise you on the list of roof alarm companies they pre-approve to provide limitless cover for lead theft. To that end. congratulations to the many local churches which have had roof alarms fitted – almost one a week at the moment. Let’s keep the dialogue open and one step ahead of the criminals and unscrupulous people who are targeting our churches. And finally, my Rector (she whom must be obeyed) reminds me we should pray for our churches and those who target them. So, ‘Lead them not into temptation’ is what I say

SAM DOBBS Daventry District Sergeant

Northamptonshire Police

Telephone 03000 111222 Extension 343805

Mobile 07712 193705

Email | [email protected] Twitter | @sgtsamdobbs

http://www.ecclesiastical.com/churchmatters/churchguidance/churchsecurity/theftofmetal/index.aspx

http://www.ecclesiastical.com/churchmatters/churchguidance/churchsecurity/theftofmetal/index.aspx

mailto:[email protected]

theft from churches - pitsford village · 2018. 10. 2. · police checks of scrap metal dealers...

Documents