Bill Ritchie

Business Liaison Officer

As Fife Constabulary's Business Liaison Officer, Inspector Bill Ritchie coordinates the Force's interaction with the Fife business community.  The Business Liaison Officer is responsible for:

• Leading, managing, developing, and reviewing practical and innovative partnership approaches to benefit local businesses and the wider Fife community
• Engaging with the Fife business community to identify and addresses their concerns
• Liaising at a strategic level and facilitating appropriate partnership links between Fife Constabulary, Fife Council, Scottish Enterprise Fife and Fife businesses
• Forging partnerships between businesses to share information and combat business related crime
• Improving access to advice and police services

The Business Liaison Officer provides a single point of contact for Fife's businesses and acts as a conduit between Fife Constabulary and organisations that represent the business community.

Architectural Liaison Officer

If you are considering a new development in Fife, our Architectural Liaison Officer (ALO) can assist by advising on how designing out crime at the planning/building stage can save money and reduce crime.  The ALO can provide advice on the specification/use of CCTV and Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED).  Fife Constabulary is committed to the principles of Secured by Design - the UK Police flagship initiative supporting the principles of designing out opportunities for criminal activity within the built environment.  The ALO offers guidance on how to achieve a good overall standard of security for estate layout, access routes, footways, boundary perimeters and the property itself.  This includes advice on secure vehicle parking, adequate lighting, control of access to individual businesses and common areas, and landscaping schemes that enhance natural surveillance and safety.

Scottish Business Crime Centre

The main function of the Scottish Business Crime Centre is to reduce business crime and create a safe and secure trading environment in which businesses and communities flourish, employment opportunities are developed and prosperity is encouraged.  This is achieved by:

• Promoting specific initiatives within industry sectors and community groups
• Sharing good practice approaches to business related crime prevention
• Raising awareness of the level, impact and cost of business crime
• Creating and supporting a network of relevant partnerships and programmes

Alcohol Liaison Officer

The Alcohol Liaison Officer is responsible for identifying and implementing appropriate projects and actions aimed at improving community safety by reducing alcohol-related crime attempting to change attitudes towards the drinking which leads to the misuse of alcohol.  The Liaison Officer aims to raise awareness of issues such as drink driving and also encourages the creation of new PubWatch schemes with the key aim of achieving a safe, secure and responsibly led social drinking environment in all licensed premises throughout Fife.

Counter Terrorism Security Advisors

The core role of the Counter Terrorism Security Advisors is to identify and assess local critical sites that might be vulnerable to terrorist or extremist attack; then devise and develop appropriate protective security plans to reduce vulnerabilities to the threat of terrorism.  Their main aim is to develop, promote and implement counter terrorism protective security best practice, policy and procedures within the Kingdom.

Community Safety Officers

Fife Constabulary is committed to reducing the level of attacks on commercial premises.   We offer free commercial surveys to the managers and owners of such premises where a risk has been identified or where an attack has taken place.

A typical survey will normally follow the pattern of a thorough examination of the site in question by the Community Safety Officer along with both the local management representatives and any others involved in the security of the site.  This site visit will be followed up with a written confidential report being presented to the management in which various findings and recommendations will be made.  The report will cover all aspects of security such as external and internal security, access control, lighting, CCTV coverage, security of data, key control, intruder alarm detection and signalling and any other aspect pertinent to the type of premises under examination. The human side of all this is not ignored as all management have a duty of care under the Management of Health and Safety Regulations towards their employees and identified risks may be pointed out and solutions suggested.

One simple solution to many of the risks presented to staff is achieved through education and raising awareness, by means of the Community Safety Officers delivering a personal safety at work talk to the employees during a staff training session.  These sessions are becoming more and more popular as managers identify the need to protect their staff from crime within the workplace.

Employer Supported Policing

The Employer Supported Policing programme is an innovative and powerful partnership between the Police, employers in a number of industries and their staff, to help towards making Fife safer by training and fully empowering special police officers.

Staff at all levels of business and other organisations across Fife can volunteer to be Employer Supported Special Constables and once intensively trained, they carry out patrols in key areas during some of their usual working hours, with the same powers and backup of full-time police officers to tackle crime head-on and provide reassurance to the public.

Employers contribute their staff's time for training and one day per month for patrols. Fife Constabulary provides an in-depth training course, uniform, equipment and full support.  Successful recruits are usually deployed in an area directly related to the employing industry so that existing skills can be best used.

BusinessWatch

Fife Constabulary has set up a series of Force-wide Watch schemes for businesses.  The schemes work in a similar manner to the tried-and-tested Neighbourhood Watch by linking businesses together and providing a direct flow of information to and from the Police.

The schemes have proved to be an ideal method of quickly passing information of activities throughout the UK to the business community within Fife, making sure that local businesses are well prepared to combat business related crime.

• Ø Businesses join the scheme by providing Fife Constabulary with their contact details
• Ø Local Police identify crime issues that require circulation, which are passed to the Force's Business Liaison Officer and then disseminated via email
• Ø If businesses have information about crimes or suspicious incidents, they can pass these directly to the Police for onwards circulation to the business community

Pubwatch Initiatives

BANNED from one bar- barred from them all will be the fate of drunken troublemakers in Fife's town centres following the introduction of an innovative crime fighting initiative by Fife Constabulary and the region's licensed trade.

Pubs and clubs have signed up to the Pubwatch Scheme, which involves the premises operating a shared radio network. 

The system allows different pubs and clubs within close proximity of each to communicate directly.  The networks, which can be monitored by the police, use the state-of-the-art radios to pass on information about people refused entry or ejected for causing trouble. 

The pubs and clubs can then agree to refuse to serve individuals that cause, or are known to have previously caused problems such as violence, drunkenness and drug taking.  In this way the problem is excluded and not transferred to another business.

The following towns now have a Pubwatch association in place.

• Kirkcaldy Town Centre Pubwatch Association
• Dunfermline Pubwatch Association

If any of the above would be of assistance to your business or you have any other queries about how Fife Police can help your business please contact Bill Ritchie on the contact details provided.