Rewarding outstanding individuals with The ACS Pacesetters Security Officer of Distinction Award 2019

May 24, 2019

The ACS Pacesetters Achievement Awards Lunch, run by FM Contract Watch, took place on Wednesday, 22^nd May, at Royal Windsor Racecourse with 200+ members, their staff, clients and guests in attendance. Once again, the sun was shining as members gathered for pre-lunch drinks at the Riverbank Pavilion.

This is the sixth year the lunch has taken place and it is now a recognised event in the security guarding calendar.  Each member company attending was presented with an ACS Pacesetters 2019 Award to recognise that they have achieved an SIA ACS score in the top 15% of all accredited companies.

We were fortunate to have two speakers this year.  Margaret Durr, Head of Field Operations (Services) at the NSI, explained the recent updates and scoring criteria to the SIA Self-Assessment Workbook. After lunch, Andrew Donaldson, Head of Special Projects at Pool Re, the UK government terrorism reinsurer gave an interesting and informative speech on national counter terrorism before presenting the individual Security Officer of Distinction Awards.

The standard of nomination to receive one of these prestigious awards was exceptional this year and every frontline Security Officer is to be congratulated for their actions.  All of the Officers nominated were of great credit to their company and included heroic actions putting their own lives at risk, arrests of dangerous criminals, saving lives and dealing with individuals with serious mental health problems.

The ACS Pacesetters Security Officer of Distinction Award 2019 winners were:

• Muhammad Ali – CIS Security Limited
• Tom Atley – Ward Security Limited
• Richard Breckon – OCS Group UK Limited
• Steve Brooks – Westgrove Support Services Limited
• John Curry – ABM Group (UK) Limited
• Sara Day – Incentive Facilities Management Limited
• Julio Ferreira – Axis Security Services Limited
• David Johnston & Aaron Mohangee – Land Sheriffs Limited
• Kieran Khan – SafetyNet Security Group Limited
• Peter Luckman – MAN Commercial Protection Limited
• William Smith – Interr Security
• Kevin Walters – ICTS (UK) Limited
• Darren Winters & Ryan Tench – Venture Security Management Limited

We would like to take the opportunity to thank our generous sponsors, without whom we would be unable to run this event, and they were:  Broadstone Engage Ltd, Centralus PLC, Core Security Systems Ltd, Eurotech Monitoring Services Ltd, First Response Group Ltd, NSI, Sutton Specialist Risks and TrackTik.

Each year, we select a charity to support and this year’s chosen charity was Felix Fund – The Bomb Disposal Charity.  The CEO, Melanie Moughton, gave an excellent insight into how this small Oxfordshire charity aims to assist with the well-being of individuals within the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (OED) and Search Community.  Almost every day bomb disposal and search personnel deal with highly pressurised situations.  This continued exposure to intense stress can have lasting effects, both physical and mental.  We were delighted to raise £1,835.00 and, it is without doubt, that the quality of the prizes donated by Ward Security Ltd, Westgrove Support Services Ltd, Centralus PLC, FM Contract Watch, TC Facilities Management and Royal Windsor Racecourse helped to achieve this.

We are proud to be able to recognise the leading security companies in the UK and front-line security staff, who are often the forgotten heroes of our industry, at our annual Awards Lunch