If you’ve served 30 years as a police officer, you’ve probably seen most things the job can throw at you, and that’s certainly the case with Sandy Tracey.
Sandy has put away her police uniform for the last time and recently joined us at Complete Licensing as one of our team of experts, advising on licensing and compliance.
We’re very happy to be working with Sandy, not just because of her vast experience working for the Metropolitan Police and the Northamptonshire force, but also because she brings a female perspective to our work in the field of licensing.
“I served for 24 years within The Metropolitan Police and have a background in various roles, including investigating domestic violence, sexual offences, hate crime and being responsible for protecting the most vulnerable of victims,” says Sandy
But her experience in the Met extended as far as ‘front line’ service in Lambeth and Battersea and even undertaking public order and ceremonial duties as a mounted officer. Let’s face it, if she can handle a rowdy crowd and keep a frisky horse under control, then she can deal with anything the licensing sector can throw at her.
Sandy spent nine years as a police licensing officer in Westminster Borough, overseeing licence applications, making compliance visits, providing crime prevention and pre-application advice, conducting enforcement actions and representing the police at licensing hearings. Among the long list of leading venues she has provided with sound advice are world-renowned Annabel’s club in Berkeley Square (including a challenging location change) and the Criterion Group during its £400 million Leicester Square hotel and nearby nightclub development.
Sandy also wrote and implemented crime scene preservation and use of force training guidelines for Westminster’s businesses and has conducted training at numerous venues and for hundreds of staff – including the security teams for the Marriott hotel chain and the relevant staff at most of the central London late night venues, including all of Novus Leisure and the Heaven group. West End casino staff training also came under her remit.
“My training resulted in an improved awareness of forensic preservation, whereby more crime scenes were correctly preserved prior to police arrival, there was improved confidence in the use of force for door staff and improved relations between venues, their staff and the police. I was awarded a Borough Commander’s commendation for commitment, professionalism and meritorious services towards the reduction in crime related to the nighttime economy for my work.”
Sandy switched from London to Northamptonshire in 2018 and for the last four years has been licensing officer responsible for more than 2,000 licenced premises in the west of the county – including Northampton itself and all licensed premises within the Silverstone Race Circuit.
“Working in a county force brought very different challenges from London and the heart of the West End. I have undertaken successful compliance and enforcement work with some of the county’s more challenging venues and represented Northamptonshire Police at license review hearings,” Sandy says.
“In partnership with the Fire Service and the Crime Commissioner’s Office staff and Scan Net, I led the police initiative responsible for the implementation, training and set up of 30 ID Scanners in the county’s nighttime economy venues. Crime and disorder within our venues significantly reduced as a result and I received a Northamptonshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Commendation for my part in that success.”
So, Sandy brings all that experience to the table and more besides. “Obviously, I can look at licensing and compliance issues from a woman’s perspective. I will consider issues which might not be immediately apparent to male colleagues, and I can also bring a different approach to ‘covert’ compliance work. A woman, as part of a couple or group, is less conspicuous in those circumstances, and that enables me to gain a more complete picture of a venue’s particular circumstances – and means we can better advise them on what’s needed to comply with the terms of a licence.”
