ABSTRACT
Part of the changing nature of the responses described above has been an acceptance on the part of the police service that since environmental design is one of the elements that impacts upon crime and crime prevention, and has very practical implications for police operations, it would be helpful from a police perspective to try to influence decisions about the layout and organisation of physical space. This has resulted in the establishment in virtually all of Britain’s police forces of Architectural Liaison Officers (or equivalent title). Some of these posts are civilian posts, and sometimes they are serving police officer posts carrying a rank; no doubt within the police service itself there are arguments about the strengths and weaknesses of each approach at a time when ‘civilianisation’ has been an important issue in policy developments in police forces. Whichever way this is handled in individual forces, their duties in practice tend to fall into three broad groups:
a ‘spreading the gospel’ to all interested or affected parties; b liaising with development interests over the design of proposals, helped by the
conferment of a ‘Secured By Design’ award to projects which meet the principles expressed. (The award, among other things, has been used as a marketing tool by private housing developers.) The ‘Secured By Design’ approach is the subject of a more detailed case study in Chapter 8 of this book; it should be noted that, as well as being a significant award in its own right, the guidelines laid down in order to secure it illustrate also the kind of advice that Police Architectural Liaison Officers are likely to give on free-standing cases;
c responding to consultations from local planning authorities at the stage when planning applications have been received.
