Crime is forever changing and so are the needs and expectations of policing. Consequently, Essex Police advocates to continuously adapt and reflect its practices, to ensure that the service provided is efficient and effective in keeping the residents of Essex safe.

This ethos is reflected within how Essex Police utilise its estates. Essex Police strive to deliver accommodation that responds to the demands of modern policing, embracing the digital and cultural enablers that allow us to reduce our physical footprint.

When considering future developments within Essex Police Estates, it is imperative to:

• Incorporate energy reduction technologies in line with the Carbon Management Plan and continue to invest in ways possible to improve health and safety, security, equality and diversity.
• To embed national recognised security standards within our estates.
• Promote a safe built environment, encouraging healthy communities and places that are safe and accessible.
• To encourage effective engagement between Essex Police Designing out Crime Officers, Local Authorities and Developers at the earliest opportunity.
• Implement a ‘Crime Impact Statement’ within the ‘Design and Access Statement’. Such statements are devised to identify specific measures that will be adopted to reduce crime.
• To endeavour to create an ambitious collaboration programme with emergency services and other partners that will enhance our ability to achieve service benefits and stretch our property performance targets for the efficiency of the estate.

Designing out Crime Officers

Designing out Crime Officers, (DOCO’s) are trained members of the Police Service, who specialise in crime prevention and designing out crime.

Their role is to provide impartial expert advice on crime prevention through environmental design, (CPTED principles) to a wide range of design and build professionals.

For further guidance around the role of the DOCO visit Designing out Crime.

Secured by Design

The physical security of a building alone does not necessary make it ‘secure’; instead, it is a by-product of well thought out, inconspicuous crime prevention measures, that are incorporated within the whole design.

When considering future developments, it is imperative to achieve sustainable reductions in crime, to help people live and work in a safer society. Police Crime Prevention Initiatives are a police-owned organisation working on behalf of the Police Service, to deliver a wide range of crime prevention initiatives, of which they promote Secured by Design (SBD).

Supported by the DOCO, SBD provide a series of ‘design guides’ that enable the DOCO to work closely with architects, developers and local authority planners at the design stage. This will enable the DOCO to assist the developer to ‘design out crime’ by improving the layout and physical security of buildings at conception through to construction.  

Essex Police and ensuring sustainability within new builds

The Essex Police Designing out Crime Officers (DOCO’s) encourage potential developments to adopt crime prevention through environmental design principles, utilising Secured by Design (SBD) as the preferred enabler. 

SBD has produced a series of authoritative Design Guides to assist the building, design and construction industry to incorporate security into developments to comply with the Building Regulations in England, Scotland and Wales and meet the requirements of SBD.

Adhering to these guides will meet the needs for planning authorities and building control professionals, who will seek to establish that relevant legislation and building regulations have been met.  This would produce a robust benefit along with delivering additional contributions towards community reliance. 

Essex Police strongly encourage developers to consider implementing the guidance provided within the SBD guides. 

Further information about Secured by Design and the guides can be found Secured by Design

Traffic Management considerations:

In the interest of road safety and reducing casualties linked to highways usage, we believe that developers should contribute to designing out the need for enforcement within the construction of newly built roads. This would apply to estate roads where the introduction of any desired speed limit is largely self – enforcing through design. This is especially relevant to the strong desire for 20mph limits or zones on new estates. New residents have an expectation that the 20mph limit or zone will be enforced where it then becomes a local policing issue. Creative design can take out the need for enforcement.

For distributor roads we identify more and more roads being built by developers which become roads for distributing high volumes of traffic around new estates and potentially towns. These new roads have the potential to become roads where young drivers in particular will use them as roads to test their ability for travelling at high speeds.

For such examples we would look to ensure:

1. Speed limits are appropriate and meet the needs of all road users / residents;
2. With an evidenced case, and where possible, a developer is instructed to install average speed detections systems to ensure road user compliance, thereby negating / reducing the need for Police presence to enforce speed limits on newly built roads.

Technology exists for red light enforcement at Traffic lights and once again consideration should be given by developers to consider enforcement technology as part of any Traffic light systems installed, improving overall safety of the location but also providing an efficient way to enforce the restriction.

Considering the prevention of crime and to enhance community safety, Essex Police believe that commercial and residential developers should contribute to the costs of installing Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems on newly designed roads.

Developers also need to consider how their planning decisions can have a negative long-term impact upon neighbours and communities around simple things such as parking disputes through the lack of available parking, which can be factored into Designing Out Crime.

In terms of road safety, Developers should make provision for all road users and in particular themost vulnerable road users; cyclists and pedestrians.

Essex Police are also enthusiastic to engage with Highways England (and other development opportunities) to identify a southern road policing base or policing presence within other infrastructure. This may be a consideration from planning works associated with the proposed Lower Thames Crossing development.