An independent Alliance of design experts from product and manufacturing,
builtenvironment and service design sectors have been asked to raise the
profile within industry of howinnovative design can tackle crime. It is one
part of arenewed focus on designing out crime in the Government’s new Crime
Strategy led by Jacqui Smith, Home Secretary. See Cutting Crime (pdf)
The Alliance includes:
- Sebastian Conran, Director Conran & Partners
- Lorraine Gamman, Professor and Director of the Design Against Crime Research Centre at Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design, University of the Art London;
- David Kester, Chief Executive of the Design Council
- Gloria Laycock, Professor and Director of the UCL Centre for Security and Crime Science
- Joe McGeehan, Professor of Communications Engineering and Director of the Centre for Communications Research in Bristol University’s Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
- Jeremy Myerson, Professor of Design Studies and Director of the Helen HamlynCentre at the Royal College of Art
- Ken Pease, Professor of Criminology, Loughborough University
- John Sorrell, Chairman of CABE (Commission for Architecture and the BuiltEnvironment)
- Paul Stephenson, Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police
- Michael Wolf, Co-founder of the brand consultancy Wolff Olins
Sad to say in these times of heightened awareness about sustainability, but crime and fear are still not yet seen as sustainability issues.
No self respecting architect would design a building that wasted non renewable materials or was energy inefficient, but unless the client specifies that they want Secured by Design compliance, the need for appropriate secure design (ironically much more aesthetically acceptable if well designed in) is seen as a cost saving opportunity and the need to retrofit security one crime starts to bite then has to be met with the locks and bolts that give rise to the fortress mentality jibe!
Until appropriate security design for the built environment (including layout and physical specification) is mandatory, there is a clear message that this is ‘optional’. There has been huge progress in the policy support for safer environments in recent years, but until planning policy and building regulations leave no wriggle room for this aspect of sustainability to be avoided, developers will still be creating environments with entirely avoidable risks – and police forces will still see ‘crime prevention’ as an Aunt Sally where they too can make cost savings!