Mark Silvester, of West Midlands Police, has received a commendation for his services to crime prevention and designing out crime. The occasion was an awards night held by Secured by Design (SBD), the national police crime prevention initiative.
Mark, pictured centre, was featured in the April 2019 print issue of Professional Security magazine. He manages the force’s team of Designing Out Crime Officers (DOCOs). He received his certificate at SBD’s ATLAS national training event attended by nearly 200 DOCOs from every police force in the UK – 43 in England and Wales plus Police Scotland and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). Mark was presented with his commendation certificate by Stephen Watson, National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) Lead for Crime Prevention, pictured right; and pictured left, Helen Ball, Assistant Commissioner (Professionalism), Metropolitan Police.
DOCOs seek to make new buildings and major refurbishments more secure to deter and reduce crime and anti-social behaviour. They do this by working with architects, developers and local council planners to incorporate proven crime prevention measures and techniques into a wide range of buildings from the design and planning stages all the way through to their construction and completion. These buildings include homes, schools, universities, health centres, hospitals, sport and leisure centres as well as retail, business, commercial and industrial premises.
More than one million new homes have been built throughout the UK to SBD’s crime prevention standards with known reductions in crime in the lifetime of a development – good news for residents and hard-pressed police forces.
Mark said: “The commendation was totally unexpected. I am very humbled by the award from SBD. I have to thank my team in West Midlands Police, who daily do amazing work to reduce crime in our communities.”
At the ATLAS training event, DOCOs heard from speakers, who included Martin Hewitt, Chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, attend learning and development workshops, and saw the latest security products from SBD member companies. Representatives of more than 50 member companies showed their products, which have achieved SBD’s Police Preferred Specification standard. This standard shows they are tested to be robust enough to withstand an attack from opportunist burglars.
SBD believes there were more DOCOs at this event than there are in the rest of the world.
