There was a heavy police presence at Mila Hardware recently when the company hosted a Security Hardware Showcase at its UKAS accredited Mila Test Centre.

Representatives from both the Thames Valley and West Yorkshire police forces attended the event to get practical hands on experience of everything from how to gain access via composite doors in an emergency to how to select the right anti-manipulation cylinder and door handle.

From both ends of the crime prevention spectrum, Architectural Liaison Officers and Method of Entry teams were shown the success of Mila’s Evolution high security cylinder and handle in resisting lock bumping and forced entry.

Strafford Cooke, Mila’s Technical Manager, said that the company wanted to break down some of the myths surrounding security hardware – most notably that all PAS23/24 approved hardware performs to the same level and that just because a cylinder is branded anti-snap, it will resist forced entry.

He added:  “A lot of cylinders which have been branded as anti-snap, PAS24 and Secured by Design in the past actually need additional security products in order to satisfy the requirements.  The additional testing methods now included in PAS24 are a huge step forward in raising the overall performance standard and should go some way towards preventing the opportunist break-in, but what we wanted to demonstrate was the actual performance of a range of products tested with ‘real world tools’ - which are not the same as those included in the PAS24 tool kit.”

The officers who attended on the day were given the opportunity to use their own specialist tools to try to force open a composite door with standard hardware fitted, with competitors’ high security hardware fitted and also with the Evolution handle fitted.

The results, says Strafford, surprised many of the officers with only the Mila Evolution handle still resisting entry after five minutes.

The event was part of Mila Hardware’s commitment to encouraging increased cooperation between hardware manufacturers and the police crime prevention teams who advise homeowners and tenants on how to secure their properties against burglars.  It also demonstrated Mila’s willingness to allow its fully equipped test centre to be used as an extension of the police’s own training facilities.

On the day, for example, Mila provided six doors with varying levels of security for officers to practice their forced entry techniques.   This included everything from crowbars to hydraulic rams and the famous police enforcer and certainly exceeded anything seen before even under the new PAS24 requirements!