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1 – 4 of 4It is perplexing that the library profession, which has made such a prodigious response to changing technology and has worked ceaselessly to provide users with the best and latest…
Abstract
It is perplexing that the library profession, which has made such a prodigious response to changing technology and has worked ceaselessly to provide users with the best and latest information, should be lagging behind in the area of financial management. The typical background which most students bring to library studies is in the humanities. This, together with the relative dearth of coursework in administration available in most graduate library school programs, has resulted in far too many librarians assuming important fiscal responsibilities with little more than a sip from the wells of financial management education.
The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of Strike Force Piccadilly, a New South Wales Police initiative to address an upsurge in ram raids targeting automatic teller…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of Strike Force Piccadilly, a New South Wales Police initiative to address an upsurge in ram raids targeting automatic teller machines (ATMs). Also, the aim is to understand the apparent success of the project in terms of a public‐private partnership, involving primarily police and the retail and banking sectors.
Design/methodology/approach
The New South Wales Police provided data showing the numbers of attempts and successful ATM ram raids on a monthly basis from August 2005 to April 2008. The preventive interventions are set against these data in a time series format. The paper is limited to within‐group data, with consideration of displacement effects by reference to recorded crime data and police intelligence. Interviews about the project process are also conducted with three key participants: the police manager leading the project (public sector), the security manager of a major retail shopping centre chain (private sector) and the commercial security operations manager of a major bank (private sector).
Findings
The increase in ATM ram raids is halted, and the number is reduced from 69 in the 12 months before the intervention to 19 in the final 12 months of the post‐intervention period – a 72 per cent reduction. For the same periods, successful raids are reduced from 30 down to two – a 93 per cent reduction. The research indicates that the main influences on the decrease are: the creation of a police priority alarm response system and the installation of situational prevention measures, including special bollards. The larger context for success is the partnership formed between police and industry. The interventions are developed through consultation, co‐operative research and commitment from all parties.
Originality/value
The paper demonstrates the potential significant crime prevention benefits of public‐private partnerships, especially when they are well organised and include research and information sharing. Additionally, the findings challenge the often pessimistic literature about police response times by demonstrating how rapid response can be highly effective in certain circumstances.
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Aimee Bui and Brian H. Kleiner
The worlds of literature and business are as different as they get. While literature often revels in the artistic and abstract aspects, business focuses on the more practical and…
Abstract
The worlds of literature and business are as different as they get. While literature often revels in the artistic and abstract aspects, business focuses on the more practical and realistic facets of life. Literature talks ideas, business speaks money. Writers express themselves with words, business men prove themselves through numbers. Former US President Calvin Coolidge once exclaimed, “The business of America is business. Not Art!” (West brook, 1980:1). However, this difference is, at most, on the surface. Literature and business intertwine on more perspectives than one might think. For example, there are traces of corporate capitalism in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle in which workers are portrayed as “slaves to the economic system” (Watts, 1982:77). Or Joseph Heller’s Something Happened depicts the harsh rules of business by which any one who is not contributing efficiently to the success of a company will be discarded, also known as corporate Darwinism (Horner, 1992:27). Or in Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, with a humourous tone, medieval England is modernised with various economic measures, such as new currency, stock exchange in the court, and full‐time employment for the knights, and hence saved from financial ruins (West brook, 1980:49). In other words, literature has been drawing inspirations from the financial market. Therefore, it might not be surprising if there are major themes in literature than can be applied to the corporate world. In fact, managers at all levels can learn valuable lessons for the many areas of business from literature.
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