Recently announced was the government’s anti-crime Design and Technology Alliance.
It’s described as independent design experts who will work to raise awareness about how design can be used to make life more difficult for criminals. With the Home Office, they will spread the word both in the public and private sector about designing out crime as part of the government’s overall crime strategy. The alliance’s founding members, Sebastian Conran, of Conran and Partners, and John Sorrell, chairman of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, have been joined by: David Kester, chief executive of the Design Council; Jeremy Myerson, professor of design studies at the Royal College of Art; Gloria Laycock, director of the UCL Centre for Security and Crime Science; and Lorraine Gamman, director of the Design Against Crime research centre at Central St Martins School of Art and Design. Its first meeting is in September.
What they say
Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker said that innovative design played a critical role in driving down crime in England and Wales by more than a third over the last decade. “Much of the 51 per cent fall in vehicle crime can be attributed to design improvements such as immobilisers and toughened glass,’ he said. ‘The Design and Technology Alliance will seek to build on these achievements. They will champion the message that designing out crime is about sustainable and innovative design of products, space and places to make crime unattractive and communities safer.’
He encouraged businesses to accept ‘as routine’ the responsibility to ensure that new products and services do not inadvertently create new crime opportunities.
