Private Security on private estates

[CCTVcity]

What’s your view on this?

I just visited family, well my home of 25 years before I left for adulthood. For the last year or so some of the residents on the private estate have hired a private security firm. I don’t know exactly but going to say probably about a quarter of residents.

This company patrols up and down streets on the estate in vans and cars with security dogs 24/7. In the middle of the road at 1mph crawling along. At night with flood lights beaming into house frontages (although thankfully no flood lights this evening as only the van today).

They stop people randomly, flash cars and those going about their business and ask ‘are you ok’. But in an annoying way where they return if your still there when they circle back.

They think they own the place.

It honestly feels unsettling. I think my parents are used to it now; well no I actually think just trying to ignore it so it doesn’t upset them - but it’s honestly intrusive and just raises the blood pressure.

The most recent intervention is a new anpr type system which turns the once automatic gates into some kind of delayed entry system - unless you have submitted your number plates. So the pizza delivery guy or any other unregistered visitor has to wait multiple minutes at the gate before they open to enter. In reality I think this will become a shit show and the gate will just be left open.

I don’t know whether this is linked to how I feel as it’s my childhood home and this relaxed safe community place has become this odd slightly dystopian nightmare when I visit or whether this is genuinely unreasonable and ridiculous.

And then I think maybe I would feel differently if I was there with my young child now (this security issue started after a spate of recent robberies which were all in empty homes recently marketed - so pre scoped and non confrontational robberies). But then I think no I don’t think I would feel any better as last thing we need is unaccountable men roaming around in vans with the appearance of some kind of authority when we have no idea who they really are.

How would you feel if this was your going on in your home?

My mother's house was burgled in the 90s and again a few years ago. The police responses between the two occasions were like day and night. They could not have been less interested the second time.

I don't like the idea of security like this but I can absolutely understand why people would do it.

There was an article in one of the papers in recent years where an estate in Dublin tried to put a gate across the entrance and restrict access to residents only. As far as I remember it wasn't allowed because gated communities such as that are illegal. I wasn't aware any exist here.

I remember my parents being burgled when we were kids in the 80s. The police were all over it, fingerprinting, forensics, the lot. The caught the culprit within the week.

Not sure it’d be the same now.

Sounds like a great idea.
Police can't keep up with it all, so many thefts all the time!

It does sound like a good idea. The reality of it is rather more jarring. Imagine sitting at your dinner table as a floodlight goes past at 1mph. It’s like living in a cross between a lighthouse and a George Orwell book.

We had security on our estate in Bristol in the 1990s. Theft rates dropped and it did feel more secure. The service stopped due to not all residents agreeing to pay but benefiting from the service

Just returned back from parents.

Can happily report that the rotating floodlights have stopped!!! Yipppeee. So much nicer. The patrol vehicles were still there but they seemed to have learnt a bit of discretion. A miracle!

Absolutely no issue with if at all if it stays like this. Very nice and relaxed visit home.

Yeah, I can see that floodlights might make it all feel a bit dystopian - ‘Don’t leave the compound!’

The police aren't interested you're on your own now. So yes I do understand it. The burglars will find easier targets.

There’s an estate like this near me. It’s all private property/estate. You’re not allowed through the gates unless you live there or are visiting. 24/7 guards driving around.

The residents love it. I’m somehow in their fb group which is hilarious. Someone very unironically was saying last week that they’re very privileged to live there. Yes you are. They pay over £100 a month for security per house. I have friends who live there, they think it’s great.

So three quarters of the residents are getting enhanced security without having to pay for it? Kerching!

It really pisses me off - a group of neighbours in our road have erected CCTV and an ANPR camera so they can have footage of everyone and all cars on the road 'in case anything happens we can give it to the police'. Soooo intrusive and if I ever needed to hide a body it would make things much more difficult 😁. And don't get me started on the WhatsApp group - constantly circulating photos of people walking on the road to check 'who they belong to' and various men on the road rushing out to 'question' people who aren't accounted for/stand still too long.

Aren't elections coming up in the UK? Isn't time that people asked politicians to provide a sufficient and properly trained police force?

I don't live in the UK but find it a bit shocking that, in a prosperous democracy people blandly accept the lack of a proper police force, poor public transport provision and a failing NHS.

Christ people are just aching for fascism aren't they.

In defence of the police they are very good where we are. I famously remember a time they knocked on the door middle of the night to inform my mum that an upstairs window was open. She was fuming.

I haven’t heard they have solved the burglaries that started this whole thing. But then they do sound like planned professional jobs so I can imagine it would be near impossible to catch someone who knows what they are doing.

Generally there’s never really been an issue on the estate with security. My parents never bothered to lock cars or back doors. I remember once someone went through the glove box but that was it.

We did once in the past have private security for Halloween because a few houses decided it would be a good idea to hand out £5 notes drawing all the kids and teens from afar 🤣 obviously the notes would end eventually and they would kick off with egging and loo rolling trees.

It is funny when I look back. I suppose it did always have a little bit of ‘odd’ to it but not to the current levels. Well if it makes them happy I don’t object as long as that bloody revolving floodlight doesn’t return!

And yes I concur. What will we do with our bodies! 🤣

@CCTVcity iv never heard anything like this, i think it sounds incredibly strange like something out of the handmaids tale! I don't agree with having these private firms, who's to know they are legit or not and over using their power. It doesn't sit right with me, Im glad the flood lights stopped.

Is this sort of thing common? Can people opt against it?

We don't accept it. A majority of people voted against the current government.