COMPANY PROFILE:
CROPS
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PMCI: I know that you have an excellent training facility in
the Midlands; can you tell me more about that and what you do
there?
Yes, we have a purpose built indoor training facility within a
quiet rural complex, driving up the private driveway allows
students to get a glimpse of the 200 acres of training ground
they will soon experience. What they don’t see at this point is
the 2800 acres of exercise ground we have located across the
midlands; this is solely kept for the confirmatory exercises.
When first walking into the school students are faced with
the display area, straight away answering the question, “have I
made the right choice”.
Our main classroom hosts a fully equipped wide screen
power point with an array of wall displays including images,
text, associated tactics and skills which students can read and
visually learn from. All mapping of the areas are displayed on
what creates the work table, here students can mark any of
their exercise plans to help when giving the instructors their
mission briefs. With our outdoor enclosed area we conduct
most of our tradecraft days, here they are held out of sight to
the public.
PMCI: Do you offer your own services in your market area?
Yes, CROPS provide a very discreet and professional service
to all sectors, our teams will regularly conduct 250hrs of live
surveillance each month, this via two means.
The first is the deployment of our self-reliant manned teams,
known to us as ‘organic’ operating state-of-the-art equipment
both day and night and in all weathers.
The second is our un-manned technical surveillance
deployments; these are in the form of static covert camera
placements for short or long periods, Technical vehicle platforms
containing thousands of pounds worth of recording devices and
our very own GPS vehicle tracking systems.
PMCI: Without going into specifics who do you, and your
successful trainees, work with?
Now that would be telling ☺
We conduct live surveillance instructions and bespoke
training for many UK and overseas clients, these can be
commercial, private and discreet organisations, as well as
Military, Law-enforcement and Government departments.
PMCI: Do you offer training in specialised equipment?
Yes, as mentioned we run a covert camera placement course
which holds a Level 3 accreditation; here students learn all
about the technical requirements and are trained in all aspects
of the different operational placement tactics and techniques,
this includes the caretaking and retrieval. With practical hands
on sessions we cover topics showing the student how best
to deploy our own in house sensors and clueing equipment
alongside their cameras.
Finally deploying a number of real time camera placements
in both the urban and rural settings.
PMCI: Do you have all the equipment available as part of
your courses?
Yes, we pride ourselves on equipping every student with the
correct gear to learn the job, our students are paying a lot of
money to train with us so it’s only right that we deliver an
unbeatable service.
When I was sub-contracting for training companies I was
horrified to see what rubbish was being handed out to students,
sometime you could see the disbelief in their faces! Because of
moments like that I ensured that time and money was spent to
deliver realistic training with realistic equipment.
Students attending one of our ‘green skills’ courses will be
each issued with their own ‘bail out belt’ containing a
personal concealment suit, veil and gloves, and hand
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held recording equipment. To accompany this, each pair will
be issued two Bergen’s, one containing full hide construction
equipment, the other a technical Bergen which contains stills
cameras, lenses, visual optics and communications equipment;
on the more advance courses we supply the students with
covert camera systems.
If opting to undertake our ‘blue skills’ courses the students
are this time issued a ‘belt out bag’ containing small urban
items required, each student is issued with a personal radio
and covert loop with ear peg. The vehicles are each equipped
with a larger car radio set which can be man-packed if required,
and a full urban hide construction kit which does get deployed
on exercises! To accompany these items the cars are fitted with
high-spec hidden camera systems and the full use of our GPS
tracking equipment is issued to the student.
“We provide you with the correct gear to learn the job”
PMCI: Where do you see CROPS evolving in the future?
As our reputation grows rapidly, we are fast becoming the
surveillance provider to train with. I would like to see CROPS
expanding more into European and American markets, looking
to run joint courses or bolt on skills to overseas training schools.
Currently we are taking our time and working on a number
of new courses, one of which will hold a Level 5 qualification;
this we are sure will raise the standards and introduce a new
level of teaching.
We are also working closely with another organisation to
develop a number of very cool surveillance products, these wil