Crime Reduction - Helping to Reduce Crime in Your Area

Best practice

The Policy Action Team (PAT) 13 report, written as part of the National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal highlighted the following points:

• crime and fear of crime are key factors in undermining the commercial viability of small independent shops in deprived areas 

• once vibrant local centres or neighbourhood shops where the local community could access a range of services to meet everyday needs have disappeared

• those that remain are prone to victimisation, and are primarily used by those from the local community who are unable to shop elsewhere.

• security measures currently employed to tackle crime problems are often poorly targeted, unsightly and inappropriate.

The  Small Retailers in Deprived Areas scheme was announced by the Home Secretary in June 2001 to tackle these challenges head on.  Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) in the 10% most deprived areas in England and Wales work with local retailers to produce proposals for projects funded under this scheme. Due to the range of crime and disorder problems faced by small retailers, the type of works funded depends on the individual requirements of each project.

A Home Office Development and Practice report entitled ‘Tackling crimes against small businesses: Lessons from the Small Retailers in Deprived Areas Initiative’ is now available from the RDS website. This report examines the lessons to be drawn from the SRDA initiative and is intended for practitioners who are considering similar crime prevention work. Case studies are used throughout to highlight relevant good practice and practical guidance is given on how to effectively target resources, how to engage with the business community and how to work towards a sustainable outcome.

Good practice advice from the SRDA evaluation

Regional researchers have also compiled short good practice summaries of six of the evaluated SRDA projects to highlight the different approaches taken by projects to tackle crimes against small businesses. Each report focuses on a different angle of working with small businesses, from problem solving, to thinking about issues within the wider retail area.

Reading Considering the wider retail environment	St Leonards Effective targeting and problem solving	Plymouth Involving the wider community
Bury Using CCTV in licensed premises	Kings Lynn Empowering businesses	Leicester Businesses ‘buy in’ to tackle youth nuisance

 

Last update: 25 November 2004