Surrey Chief Constable Gavin Stephens visited the Upper Longcross new homes, in Chertsey, presenting two further Secured by Design certificates for the latest completed phases of the development. Mr Stephens was accompanied by North Surrey Designing Out Crime Officer Vic Smith and from the developer Crest Nicholson, Senior Technician Eleni Stamoulou.
The national police crime scheme Secured by Design (SBD) is part of Police Crime Prevention Initiatives (PCPI), a police-owned not-for-profit organisation. SBD seeks to include crime prevention techniques and measures into the layout and landscaping of new developments and to improve physical security of buildings using products, such as doors, windows, locks and walling systems that meet SBD security requirements.
This has led to more than one million homes built to SBD crime prevention standards across the UK – that’s 30 per cent of all new homes built – with reductions in crime of up to 87 per cent year-on-year as reported by Police Scotland in 2017.
Key are SBD trained Designing Out Crime Officers (DOCOs for short) based in UK police forces and councils who specialise in designing out crime and who liaise with local government planners, developers and architects. Their aim; to design out crime at the planning stage across building sectors. Some local authorities have gone so far as to introduce SBD standards as a planning requirement. SBD has worked with manufacturers, the construction industry and standards authorities for years to see that security standards are current to keep pace with changing criminal behaviour.
The most famous buildings with the nod from SBD include the 2012 London Olympics site, the 2014 Commonwealth Games Village in Glasgow, Wembley Stadium, the National Stadium of Wales, and the Scottish and Welsh Assembly Buildings.
