22
Apr
2015
By Calvin at 09:23 GMT, 8 years ago
I was in the company of a project manager for one of our national house builders yesterday, running through some detail concerning the doors and windows they are going to use on their new development in central London. They’re hoping to achieve a police ‘Secured by Design’ award for this large development of apartments and I know that some of you reading this will be asking yourself what is ‘Secured by Design’.
Secured by Design (SBD) is a police initiative aimed at designing out crime opportunities from new developments, both domestic and commercial. It’s been around since the 1980s and has delivered many tens of thousands of crime resistant homes in that time. In my opinion it’s probably one of the most important crime prevention initiatives ever developed by the police and long may it continue.
Builders who are seeking the reward have to work their way through a document akin to a Building Regulation Approved Document and follow the design requirements and specification standards for things like doors, windows and lighting. Although the document appears to be quite complicated an experienced and determined builder can easily achieve SBD status. They’re helped along the way by the police Designing Out Crime Officer (DOCO) who will have several meetings with the developer and carry out a final inspection of the buildings when they’re near completion – a bit like a Building Control Officer.
The DOCO, who could be a police officer or a member of the police staff is one of those ‘back room’ people who’s task gets indirectly and unfairly criticised by politicians (and others who don’t know what they’re talking about) when they harp on about ‘getting the police out of their offices and back onto the front line’ (Drives me nuts!)
These DOCOs (Previously known as Crime Prevention Design Advisers and Architectural Liaison Officers) are probably the most unsung members of our police service. Between them and the builders they are supporting they have been responsible for the prevention of hundreds of thousands of crimes over the years, because their help and advice has created houses and apartments that are really difficult to break into. There have been a number of independent studies of the effectiveness of SBD conducted over the years and the very worst of them show 50 to 60% fewer burglaries than would be expected had SBD specifications not been applied. Other types of theft, motor vehicle crime and criminal damage are also a great deal less on an SBD development.
SBD is applied to nearly all new and refurbished affordable housing, but not to such a great extent to private housing, which is somewhat silly since sometimes both forms of housing exist on the same development. In fairness to my client, they apply the principles to the whole development, especially if they’re apartments that have to be serviced, because they know by doing so they will save a heap of cash by not having to make repairs due to crime.
Yesterday I was saying that a crime not committed doesn’t make the news and suggested that the police ought to broadcast their crime prevention achievements more often. Well, I rarely see any reference to SBD in our daily newspapers, so this is me doing my little bit!
If you’re a builder then why not spend just a tiny bit more and build something that is resistant to criminals. Research tells us that the public are willing to spend more on a home with better security, so you’ll definitely get your money back.
Secured by Design – Security for the future!
Secured by Design Website: http://www.securedbydesign.com/
