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Home Office's grand anti-crime design

10/08/2007

The Home Office is hoping to encourage businesses to help in the fight against crime by using innovative design processes.

It has unveiled four new members of its Design and Technology Alliance who, it hopes, will give industry guidance on how to create products which hinder criminal activities.

The four experts – three academics and the chief executive of the Design Council, David Lester – aim to generate interest, inspire designers and advise on implementation strategies to achieve crime reductions of up to 70 per cent.

"Crime has a social impact, so it must be considered in the same way that impact on the environment or health and safety risks for customers are considered," explained Home Office minister Vernon Coaker.

"We must maximise the influence good design can have in the fight against crime."

The government is confident it can build on the success of previous innovations, which it argues have had a major contribution towards reducing crime levels.

It says aircraft hijackings fell from 70 to 15 per year in the 1970s following the introduction of routine passenger and baggage screening, while more recently the introduction of chip and pin cut credit card fraud by almost half.

The initiative has won the support of the police. Ian McInnes of the Association of Chief Police Officers said: "Neither crime nor unattractive add-on security need be a regular consequence of purchasing homes, consumer technology, or services."

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