Security patrol 'abused power', council told

Private security guards hired to patrol towns visited by asylum seekers "abused power" by handcuffing two female teenagers alleged to have been shoplifting, a council meeting heard.

The guards had been hired by Reform UK-led Essex County Council in response to what it said were residents' concerns.

But Colchester City Council heard a complaint of assault had been made against them over a city centre incident, with Labour's Tim Young telling a meeting "power had gone to their heads" and they had "abused it".

The security firm said there had been "no allegation or complaint" made against them.

Essex Police said two offences of assault without injury were recorded and "learning requirements" had been "passed to the security staff employers".

David McKelvey, who runs the security firm, called My Local Bobby (MLB), told the BBC: "The bobbies did their job: they caught two shoplifters. There is no allegation or complaint from the two shoplifters."

He said the only learning suggested to them had been the technique they used to handcuff suspects.

The guards were hired as part of a three-month trial named Operation Vanguard in Braintree, Colchester and Chelmsford, which are all visited frequently by asylum seekers housed at nearby MDP Wethersfield, a former military base.

Essex County Council said they were there to "deter anti-social behaviour" in direct response to residents' concerns.

The scheme was backed by Reform leader Nigel Farage during a visit to Chelmsford last week.

The teenagers were detained by Operation Vanguard officers who carried out a citizen's arrest on the pair on 17 September – just three days after patrols began.

At Tuesday night's meeting of Colchester City Council's crime and disorder committee, Young said: "These operatives overstepped their power.

"You give some certain men a uniform and a set of handcuffs and the power goes to their head and they will abuse it and that's what happened in this instance."

Essex County Council's deputy leader, Reform's Russell Quirk, addressed the meeting and described it as "a true incident".

But he claimed the teenagers were "prolific shoplifters".

However, no evidence for that assertion was presented at the meeting, and the BBC has not independently verified it.

He told councillors claims that "Vanguard officers [were] being sought to be prosecuted, being charged with assault – that is fundamentally, absolutely untrue".

In a statement, Essex County Council told the BBC: "We are clear that no crime was committed by MLB operatives."

Essex Police said: "We were made aware of an incident involving two teenage girls who had been detained by security staff in the High Street area of Colchester on 17 September following a reported theft from a shop.

"Neither girl was injured in the incident, which did require a police review, following which two offences of assault without injury were recorded.

"Having reviewed the circumstances and spoken to the families of the teenage girls involved, the incident was finalised with an appropriate crime-related outcome, which in this case is learning requirements being passed to the security staff employers for progression."

Operation Vanguard involves six trained and uniformed "security operatives" patrolling the centres of Chelmsford, Colchester and Braintree seven days a week, from 10:00 to 18:00.

The county council launched the patrols last month "in response to concerns, particularly among women and girls, about groups of male migrants being bussed from the Wethersfield asylum accommodation".

But it is not clear how many of the 172 incidents the patrols responded to in the first month involved asylum seekers as that data has not been collected.

Private security guards can carry handcuffs in England and Wales but do not have any special powers to use them.

They have the same rights as any member of the public when carrying out a citizen's arrest.

Any use of handcuffs must be justified as reasonable use of force or could be deemed illegal.

The security officers involved in the Colchester incident are back on their regular beat in a different part of Essex.

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