A Secured by Design trained Designing Out Crime Officer (DOCO) from the Metropolitan Police is to give a presentation at the Goldstein International Problem Solving Awards in California.
Sean Hathaway, who has been a police officer for 16 years and works as a DOCO on the south east London boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Royal Borough of Greenwich, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark, will be giving a presentation at the 29th Annual Problem-Oriented Policing Conference in Santa Cruz, between November 11 and 13.
Hosted by the Santa Cruz Police Department, the Goldstein Awards recognise outstanding police officers and forces across the world who are engaging in innovative and effective problem-solving efforts and who achieve measurable success in reducing specific crime, disorder, and public safety problems.
Each year, police officers of all ranks, crime consultants and researchers, come together to discuss how to reduce crime and safety problems. Sean’s presentation will highlight the work that he undertook on controlling crime and disorder in a south east London housing complex, where problems included prostitution, drug dealing, robbery, and burglary. Sean’s subsequent work in the area with the local authority and housing agency has resulted in a 100pc reduction in the anti-social behaviour that was being experienced by residents.
Sean was a finalist at the same awards ceremony in 2015 and has won the London Mayor’s Problem Oriented Policing (POP) Award Gold Award, as well as receiving five commendations for police work, including life-saving and Problem Solving. He is a finalist in this year’s POP Awards and has been shortlisted for the Tilley Problem Solving Awards.
Sean said: “I was initially called by the Local Policing team to help them with an ongoing problem they had for a property in the Cray Valley ward of Orpington. A standard police response of increased patrols, arrests and prosecutions had failed to remove the problem. Using my experience as a Designing Out Crime Officer I was able to offer advice around how Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design could assist – things such as increasing the natural surveillance and improving the lighting.
“Within three months of my environmental audit being submitted works were complete and a year later the problem has not re-emerged. This obviously represents a huge saving to Police and the local authority, and a massive improvement in the quality of life for residents”.
The awards ceremony will also see a presentation on ‘The Power of CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design): Cutting Crime with Urban Design’, highlighting the design principles that discourage crime.
