Safer Schools and Hospitals

Take all the maps you have made and look at them together. Identify common links in the crime locations. Are the locations where there are high numbers of crimes unsurveyed?

A good place to start is to take each of your crimes and incidents in turn, then assess what the likely reasons are for each. It may help to add three Y/N columns to your crime type database (Step 1) to check whether each of the crimes or incidents that occurred was in an area that was a) under staff surveillance, b) under CCTV surveillance, or c) in an access-controlled area.

Are the sites where the most cases of vandalism occurred unsurveyed and easily accessible?

Once you have finished looking at the crime and incidents, then review the risk assessment matrix. Run through the risks identified one by one and for each identify whether:

• The risk is still appropriate after looking at your site

• The level of risk needs to be higher / lower than previous stated

• What environmental factors influence the risk? (i.e. in the case of abduction for primary school pupils, is the boundary to the school enclosed during the school day? Can people gain entry?)

• What changes to the built environment or management of the property could reduce the crime risk? (i.e. in the case of the primary school, increasing the height of the fence may be one solution, changing the types of gates may be another).

• Identify the likely cost and timescale of each of the strategies and separate them into short term, medium term and long term strategies.

• Finally, ensure that any other risks that you have identified when looking at the set of plans are included in the risk table.

Once the risk table has been updated with the revised risk information with the reasons for the risk and potential solutions, the next stage is to consult the users of the building about the risks and prevention measures that you have suggested.

Begin by identifying a group of key stakeholders and users of the building. It is important that you select a user group with a broad spectrum of views. For example, although clinical and non-clinical staff see the same areas in a hospital, the way they use the spaces is very different. Crime prevention measures that suit one group may hinder another.

As well as consulting these users to gather information on crime risks and crimes that have occurred in the past, they will also be involved in the implementation of any new policies which will be part of your crime prevention strategy. It is therefore important to establish communications which involve the users at every step.

For each user, you need to understand how they use your building. In order to do this you can ask the following questions:

• What areas do you use?

• What routes do you take?

• What equipment or facilities do you need?

In addition to these questions think of some that apply specifically to your site. Also, there may be some questions that apply to some user groups but not others.

It is important that you get feedback on the updated version of the crime risk table to ensure that all potential crime and incident risks are included and to get further input into the reasons why the crimes may occur and the suggested crime prevention measures.

You should obtain feedback from all users on how useful potential crime prevention measures will be, as well as any potential problems with them on their work or use of the building. Questions could include:

• Will they have to adjust the routes they take or the areas they use?

• Will this prevent them from doing certain things? Is that good or bad?

• Will the changes alter their perception of the site? Will they feel safer or overly fortified?

Finally, it is important that all users are given the opportunity to identify what measures that they would like to see to make the building safer. These could include changes to management and training (such as conflict resolution skills) as well as changes to the building or site.

• Will criminals have to adjust the routes they take or the areas they use?

• What will you have prevented them from doing? Is that good or bad?

• Will the changes alter their perception of the site? Will they feel more exposed?

The first stage of this is to update the risk table resulting from the consultation exercise. The risks should then be ranked according to the level of risk identified. Once this has been undertaken, then a list of the crime prevention measures that you have identified should be pulled out and ranked according to the following criteria:

• Importance: what is the level of risk that will be addressed with the measure?

• Cost: cost benefits, what alternatives are there?

• Time: can this be achieved quickly or will it take 6 months or longer to achieve?

• Method: can management methods be used (such as implementing lock down procedures) or are changes needed to the layout of the building itself?

• Benefits: outline all the benefits that would be gained through implementation of the measure. It is important to identify those not just related to crime reduction (i.e. a reduction in the levels of aggression to A&E reception staff through an improved security presence is likely to increase staff retention therefore cutting costs, time off sick and improving morale in the department)