The Deputy Head of Security and Emergency Planning at the Natural History Museum has gained the Police Crime Prevention Academy’s accredited Level 5 Diploma in Crime Prevention – Designing Out Crime. That’s a UK qualification for police Designing Out Crime Officers (DOCOs), and also for anyone whose role involves providing specialist designing out crime advice.
Adrian Wells is one of the first candidates outside the police to achieve this diploma, that can be applied in the context of the South Kensington landmark museum. As with all candidates who take the qualification, he was assessed against criteria which includes understanding and applying the concept of designing out crime through the application of CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design), as well as understanding the design phase and the role of the planning system in relation to the built environment.
The Natural History Museum has more than 80 million specimens spanning billions of years and welcomes more than five million visitors a year; pictured is the moving T-Rex, one of the stand-out ground floor exhibits.
Head of Academy Guy Collyer said: “The delivery of this Level 5 Designing Out Crime qualification was a new experience for the Academy, but as the ProQual centre with the exclusive link to the Secured by Design initiative our qualified tutors and assessors were able to support Adrian in making the links with his working environment.
“By achieving this qualification, Adrian has demonstrated that designing out crime is relevant in its application to unique environments, such as the Natural History Museum. The Academy welcomes enquiries from anyone who feels that the Level 5 Designing Out Crime qualification would be relevant to their role as bespoke solutions can be produced to cater for specific needs within the private sector.”
Adrian Wells said: “Studying for and achieving this qualification has equipped me with the skills to be able to understand CPTED principles and the planning process and apply these specifically in a Museum context.
“The Natural History Museum always has a rolling programme of projects on the go, from exhibition builds through to extensive grounds projects and so it is extremely valuable from a security standpoint to be able to provide input at the design stage on Museum plans in order to reduce the opportunity for crime. We are currently at RIBA Stage 3 with our Urban Nature Project and the design team have considered and incorporated all the SBD recommendations we have made on the plans so far.
“Having this qualification really helps to underpin elements of our Natural History Museum security strategy around delivering an exemplary service and protecting our staff, visitors and the collection.”
Visit https://www.crimepreventionacademy.com/.
