They are out there in all weathers, helping the public and supporting the businesses.
The York Street Rangers have become a reassuring presence in the city centre since they were introduced by the York BID ten years ago.
But what’s it like out on patrol? We spoke to Scott Sinclair, head of the rangers, who are run by Eboracum for the BID.
“Street Rangers are basically there to support the businesses, if they have any issues with anti-social behaviour, shop theft, anything that’s negative we’re on call for them,” Scott told the Sunday Late Show on YorkMix Radio.
“We are also ambassadors. So we give directions to members of the public and assist with first aid jobs
“We have the same powers as any other members of the public, We can carry out a citizen’s arrest but we don’t carry handcuffs like the police for example.”
Hear the full interview
To hear Scott’s interview Sunday Late Show in full, go to listen again and click on David Dunning
They work closely with York police. “We have radios that connect with the police and obviously city centre cameras, and we’ll get shouts where known individuals are committing, say, shop theft or street drinking.
“Today, we were told about a female who was going into different stores and basically committing shop theft. We caught up with her while she was in the process of concealing items in a shop.
“She came out, we stopped her, recovered the stock, took the stock back to the business, and then obviously asked the business if they want to make a formal complaint.
“The majority of time for them, they’re happy with their stock back. But obviously we do push to prosecute for theft, because obviously theft is wrong and it affects the bottom line of businesses, and it also affects jobs.”
There’s always a chance that things can turn violent. “It is a dangerous job at times,” Scott told us.
“My boss protects me. I’m wearing a stab vest. Some of my rangers have been assaulted many times over the years. It’s an occupational hazard.
“You’re in a job where you’re going to get between offenders and members of the public, or between businesses and offenders, and these people aren’t really the nicest people you want to be dealing with.
“On very rare occasions, or when we don’t have control of the person, then, you know, then it can get dangerous.
“We dealt with situation where a male was arrested and he had a meat cleaver on him. I went white as a sheet, because the thing is, we had him stopped after he committed shop theft.
“Police came, and then, when they searched him, pulled a meat cleaver from his pocket. So we had him with with us for like, at least 20 minutes before the police came.
“When you see things like that, that’s that’s quite shocking.”
Scott has been a street ranger for ten years. “I would say is a lot worse than it has been. They’re always getting more creative, and over the past few months, people have definitely got a lot more violent,” he said.
He said he didn’t know “whether it’s desperation or it’s just because they know that if they use force, then they’ll get what they want”.
It has a big impact on shop workers. “They’re witnessing it first hand. If they’re in the way, or they’re trying to say, ‘you put that back’, this person will turn on them.
“And that’s what you’ll think about. We’re there to not only recover the stock, you’re there to protect the business and protect the staff.”
Reacting to shop thefts are only one part of the street rangers’ reactive role. They also report things to the council like graffiti.
“If there’s graffiti on a business, we have our own cleaning team that can go around and clean it off. They’re a good group of lads, and they also work really hard as well.”
Scott, who’s 6ft 6ins tall and a well-known figure in York, says a lot of his work requires soft skills.
“You have got to be able to talk to people and have that empathy and rapport with the locals and street drinkers and people with addictions and stuff like that.
“You have to be able to empathise, sympathise, and obviously show your support, whilst obviously supporting the businesses.
“You know, everyone’s a person. Everyone has their own circumstances and different situations, and you don’t know about people’s backgrounds.
“So you can’t judge, it’s about how you represent yourself. I mean, yes, being as tall as I am, and the size is an advantage, but it’s not like I use it to throw my weight around or anything like that.”
Before he moved into security, Scott worked in hotels “and I always found that was quite good with people. And then did my security licence, went to work for Eboracum, and then, luckily enough, got the role of, street ranger.
“I worked my way up to where I am now, you know, I’ve done the job for over 10 years now. So born and bred, a York lad. So I know York really well.
“I wanted to make York a better place.”
