Since January 2019, G4S has worked across the south of Nigeria deploying 40 security teams to protect a large percentage of the country’s communications infrastructure in order to keep everyone connected.
Using the G4S developed Risk360 software application and platform for patrols helps security professionals react quickly. In Nigeria, officers use it to stop criminals stealing equipment from a number of communications infrastructure sites around the country.
G4S helps protect thousands of customer sites in Lagos and the south of the country from thieves attempting to steal metal components, generators – as well as the valuable diesel used as a source of power.
The location of customer’s assets in this instance varies; from cities, to rural villages, and remote and isolated plots of land, meaning that officers are strategically positioned to enable them to get to a particular location as quickly as possible. In the first six months of 2022, G4S patrols carried out 73,962 site visits, averaging at over 12,000 per month.
“Due to the fact that we cover so many different sites across the south of Nigeria, we carefully divide up our patrols,” said Bukky Bademosi, Head of Sales for G4S in Nigeria. “We deploy 40 vehicles on every 12-hour shift. The teams deployed include a driver, a supervisor and two armed mobile policemen who support our officers. This work can be dangerous and criminals sometimes carry weapons with them, so it’s for our own safety and protection that our officers patrol with armed police officers who are subcontracted to help us.”
Working closely with the patrolling teams, colleagues at a Surveillance Centre monitor real-time footages across a range of the sites. If they spot any suspicious activity or criminal actions, they quickly contact and deploy the closest ground unit through the Risk360 application. According to G4S, during the first six months of 2022, employees in the Surveillance Centre recorded 353 incidents on Risk360 of an alarm warning them of unknown activity at a site during the night.
This swift teamwork resulted in 82 foiled theft attempts between January and June 2022 and eight arrests, with evidence supplied to law enforcement. And G4S calculated that the number of successful thefts has also decreased during this same period by 35 percent, and between April and December 2021, G4S has been successful in reducing thefts by just under 50 percent.
After attending a call out to a possible disturbance, the ground unit will complete a report for the customer on Risk360, which they can access in real-time. The company also provides intelligence-led reports to highlight sites that have any vulnerabilities or have been targeted frequently by criminals as well as being able to correlate the data to calculate the most effective patrols for the most vulnerable sites.
G4S employees concluded that over the last 12 months Thursdays and Fridays were the days where theft at the sites were most likely to occur (410 thefts and 273 thefts respectively). As such, G4S increased patrols during these evenings.
“Our data-led approach to deploying patrols strategically allows us to deliver the best service for the customer,” said Bukky. “The Risk360 app helps us to deploy at speed to protect the customers’ assets and apprehend criminals.”
Sid Odoi, Managing Director of G4S in Nigeria said: “The statistics show that our operation is having a positive impact on the security of the customers’ assets and we are delivering a service that is regularly deterring criminality.”
