Development design

Suffolk Police is able to provide organisations and businesses with advice on a wide range of security aspects on Development Design.

 

New Build/Developments

The Force Architectural Liaison Officer (ALO) is trained to offer professional risk management and security advice to developers during the design stage of a build. The advisor can also offer advice in relation to planning applications.

Designing out crime is just one of the matters architects have to consider when designing buildings and developments. The physical environment contributes to the risk of a building or its contents from being attacked. Inappropriate design or choice of materials may provide easier targets for the criminal.

The crime reduction strategy used is Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). This strategy acknowledges that development design of the build environment can create or reduce opportunities for criminal behaviour.

Simple methods, such as the defining of boundaries by either physical or symbolic barriers can make a considerable difference to individual perception of the territoriality of premises. Attention to natural surveillance, lighting and physical security are other important factors.

It is not the policy of Suffolk Police to object or support individual planning applications. The Force Architectural Liaison Officer is available to give balanced and impartial advice on how a planning application may have an impact on crime and community safety.

The officer also works with local planning departments, architects, developers and builders to promote and administer both the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) “Secured by Design” initiative and the ACPO “Park Mark” the Safer Parking Award Scheme. The officer is an accredited assessor for both these schemes.

 

Secured by Design is a police initiative to encourage the building industry to adopt crime prevention measures in development design. This reduces the opportunity for crime and the fear of crime, creating a safer and more secure environment to live and work.

Developers who gain Secured by Design approval are then presented with a major marketing opportunity. They are entitled to use the official Secured by Design logo in their literature and advertising.

Research shows that Secured by Design can reduce burglary and car crime by 50% and criminal damage by 25%. It supports one of the Government’s key planning objectives - the creation of secure, quality places where people wish to live and work.

Visit the Secured by Design website where you will find a host of advice such as Design Guides and Publications together with a list of companies who hold Secured by Design Licences and produce products which meet technical standards endorsed by ACPO Crime Prevention Initiatives (CPI) Ltd.

Park Mark is an award given by the police to car parks that have achieved the standards of the Safer Parking Scheme. This scheme is designed to reduce crime and the fear of crime in car parks. For full details visit the Safer Parking website.

If you would like the assistance of the Force Architectural Liaison Officer, please contact Keith Bartlett on 01473 613 748