Secured by Design

'Secured by Design' is a national police project focused on reducing crime through the design of buildings and the built environment.

Established in 1989, Secured by Design (SBD) is owned by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and is the corporate title for a group of national police projects focusing on the design and security for new & refurbished homes, commercial premises and car parks as well as the acknowledgement of quality security products and crime prevention projects.

Being inherently linked to the governments planning objective of creating secure, quality places where people wish to live and work, Secured by Design has been cited as a key model in the Office of Deputy Prime Minister’s guide The Planning System & Crime Prevention’ and in the Home Office Crime Reduction Strategy 2008-11.

Secured by Design is problematic from a walking and cycling perspective because it recommends that new residential housing should be designed in the form of cul-de-sacs, without any permeability for walking and cycling between them. This converts what should be very short walking and cycling trips into long ones, and provides little or no advantage to walking and cycling over driving.