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Welcome to our projects and news page. This is where MFG shares interesting articles from within the industry, posts recent success stories, displays pictures of some of our favourite projects and generally brags about all the great work being done thanks to it its collaboration with some of the best in the business.
November 2020
New Team Arrest Multiple Prolific Offenders - Supplied by MFG
Too often retail stores find themselves victim to prolific offenders that target stores again and again. One convenience chain has fought back.
Whether you are a local corner shop or a convenience chain, you are in danger of allowing repeat offenders to become the norm. An employee might find empty hangers in the dressing room, a space on the shelf or perhaps the store may fall victim to ‘steaming’. If your store is repeatedly targeted by thieves who steal as a way of life, this is a very serious problem. These types of criminals are not easily deterred and can turn violent if confronted. This can cause frustrated staff to breach company policies and get directly involved, leaving staff vulnerable and feeling unsupported. These events directly and indirectly affect your profits. Your company needs to create a profit margin whilst maintaining a safe working environment for your colleagues, a balance that is achievable with a long-term structured approach to prevent crime within your business.
Earlier this year MFG were approached by a leading convenience store chain to provide a permanent team to target the repeat offenders in their stores, who were emerging as a local organised criminal gang adopting the ‘steaming’ tactic. This gang had terrorised employees to the point they were too scared to come into work, directly impacting their well-being and the ability for the business to function. Business losses reached tens of thousands at their peak.
MFG deployed a team consisting of plain clothed officers, who’s objectives were to target the persistent prolific offenders in order to secure prosecutions against them, thereby preventing them from being able to continue to attack the stores. Our covert operators targeted and case managed these offenders through to successful prosecution.
The photo here details 9 evidence packs collated specifically against one gang individual, who had targeted the stores over a period of 5 weeks. After much surveillance and intelligence preparation, MFG’s covert team were in store ready for when the anticipated offender arrived to continue his crime spree. They affected his arrest and the offender was successfully prosecuted at court with a custodial sentence and a £700 fine. Picking apart the criminal gang.
Since being deployed in July, the team have made over 60 arrests, resulting in over 20 convictions (with 12 prolific offenders held on remand), served 6 civil court injunctions and even arrested an individual for fraud after catching him using stolen bank cards. MFG’s unique approach means all paperwork, legal liaisons, police interaction and court attendance is managed and provided by the team on behalf of the customer, to ensure that there is zero impact on your business’ valuable time.
To discuss how MFG can provide highly trained loss prevention officers or security guarding tailored to your needs, please feel free to get in touch.
September 2020
MinMoe - Hikvision's COVID-19 Access Control Solution
Source: www.hikvision.com/en/newsroom
Businesses are reopening and employees are returning to work. Managing protections for workers, customers, and visitors with the lingering effects of COVID-19 poses challenges in the business world.
To cope with challenges, it is crucial for businesses to maximize protection while operating their access control systems effectively. This requires safer and faster temperature screenings, controlling access, and recording attendance, as well as visitor management. Touch-free access control systems with a temperature screening function creates an especially effective solution. For this reason, Hikvision introduced its MinMoe “touch-free” Temperature Screening Terminals to the market.
Hikvision’s MinMoe terminals employ face recognition and thermographic technologies to make access easier and safer for work areas, record attendance, and simultaneously screen temperatures without requiring employees to touch a terminal or gate. The “touch-free” nature of the terminals is also suitable in high-throughput scenarios for fast temperature screening with access control, such as offices, factories, retail stores, schools, and so on.
Fast and accurate temperature screening with thermographic technology.
Equipped with advanced thermographic cameras, the MinMoe temperature screening terminals quickly and accurately detect elevated skin-surface temperatures for preliminary screening. The 0.3- to 2-meter recognition distance enables flexibility in deployment and detection.
When detecting abnormal temperatures, MinMoe terminals can be set to deny access requests and alert operators to further confirm a person’s actual core body temperature using clinical measurement devices. Further, the terminals support a fast temperature measurement mode, which will detect temperatures only (identity authentication will not be conducted in this mode).
“Touch-free” access control and attendance recording.
Many diseases have the potential to spread when people touch contaminated objects and surfaces. Because of this, reducing contact with terminals or gates – or avoiding touching altogether – increases employee hygiene and safety when passing through access control and attendance recording equipment.
Compared against conventional fingerprint access control and time attendance devices, MinMoe terminals offer a pleasant “touch-free” experience. Powered by a deep learning algorithm, MinMoe terminals ramp up accuracy of face recognition to over 99%, ensuring speedy and almost “non-stop” passing. Furthermore, the terminal performs well in low- and even zero-light environments.
Mask Detection
In many areas and scenarios, wearing masks has been suggested or even required by local governments, communities, or businesses themselves. Quick, automated mask detection will be another demand for access control systems.
MinMoe Temperature Screening Terminals can detect whether a person is wearing a mask. When a registered face is recognized but not wearing a mask, the device will prompt an audio reminder. This provides a simple way to automate monitoring and uphold requirements, regulations, and ultimately, safety.
More and more businesses are resuming operations and their demands on safety and efficiency will be comprehensive. Alongside access control with temperature screening, Hikvision offers innovative solutions, including flow control and social distancing.
To discuss MinMoe or any of Hikvision's other industry leading products for your home or workplace, please feel free to get in touch.
May 2020
Security Robot Protects Vulnerable Store - Supplied by MFG
PC - Habibur Rahman
Our store has been broken into so we need some extra security ASAP...
This is the kind of thing our company hears all the time. Unfortunate, hard-working shop owners are the victim of theft, unnecessary abuse or mindless vandalism. They need some help to ensure it doesn't happen again. But this was to be no ordinary request.
At 04:30am on December 17th, Richard Dance's franchise Coop store in Snowberry Crescent, Denvilles had literally been torn apart. Neighbours awoken by the destruction, looked on in horror and disbelief, as they witnessed a digger ripping the ATM from the wall of the store and loading it into an awaiting van. The residents promptly called the Police, but by then the damage had been done as the criminals sped off in the van, leaving the digger in front of the store with the engine still running. Tracks leading to the store suggest the digger was stolen from a local building site.
Richard Dance was now faced with the prospect of closing his store for an indefinite amount of time until the premises could be made safe and secure. Unplanned closure is something no small business owner can afford, especially at Christmas time. As fate would have it, a staff member from the store contacted her husband, a builder, who was able to call on local tradesman to begin work straight away. However the scale of the work required, coupled with Christmas delaying the lead times of sourcing new doors and security shutters, meant that the store would be left unsecured for some time... and that's where MFG steps in. MFG knew just the company to call, who could have the premises locked down that same day, without a single static guard in sight.
Vulture CCTV installed one of their Urban units, promptly nicknamed 'Walle' by the staff, after Disney's beloved fictional robot. The resemblance is due to its dual lens 360° PTZ (pan, tilt, zoom) Hikvision camera, mounted on top of its retail friendly design. It may look friendly, but get on the wrong side of one of these Urban units, and you will soon wish you had made some better life choices. It uses multiple cameras and advanced early detection methods to sense intruders and sends those activations through to their dedicated ARC (Alarm Receiving Centre). There, 24/7 controllers are able to audibly engage with any would be criminals, using the loudspeaker housed inside the Urban's robust metal shell. If that's not enough to discourage them (and it usually is) the controller will then trigger the Urban's concealed arsenal, and this is where the fun begins. A smoke cannon fills the premises within seconds after which you can't even see your hand in front of your face. Strobe lighting is also used in conjunction with the smoke cannon, creating a thick flashing fog so disorientating, you don't know which way is up. If that isn't enough, a 127db sound blaster will finish the job by deafening the intruder and alerting anyone nearby. In which time of course, the controller has already called the Police and despatched their in-house response drivers. All this, installed within hours of a call to MFG, and for a fraction of the price of traditional guarding. An essential saving when the restorative work would cost owner Richard thousands in materials, labour and lost earnings.
Vulture's Urban meant Richard's Coop store would be protected over the festive period and throughout the building works. Hard work and community spirit meant that the builders were able to get the store to a stage it could be opened to the public in less than three weeks! Festive delays meant the new security shutter would be a few more weeks away so Vulture's urban unit remained. In fact the staff must have liked having 'Walle' around, as it's still there to this day. We think he's become a valuable member of the team.
PC - Hampshire Constabulary
