Crime has fallen overall in the UK during the last decade, but new crime challenges have emerged as society and technology have evolved.
Design and technology have an important role to play. The challenge is to create products, services and environments that address the needs of users and hinder abusers.
The essence of Designing Out Crime is innovation - leveraging design thinking and advances in technology to create new solutions for new problems. When done well, it provides not only the desired security, but improves the user experience - allowing brands to provide a better customer journey and stand out from the competition. To be most effective, crime prevention needs to be designed in, not added on.
The Design Out Crime programme, an initiative of the Home Office’s Design & Technology Alliance Against Crime, aimed to collect evidence and insights about business-related crime, particularly in relations to Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs), and enable designers, manufacturers and policy makers to work together tackling this tough problem.
Read on to find out about:
Background to the problem
In 2010, the Federation of Small Businesses reported that 64% of its members had been a victim of crime over the previous 12 months. It estimated that the mean overall cost of crime to businesses affected over a 12 month period is £2,900. But many SME owners and staff feel they come second to large businesses in getting government and police support against crime.
Types of crimes affecting SMEs
Shoplifting/shop theft
There has been a 10% rise in shop theft and it is an ongoing and significant problem for the retail industry.
Robbery/till snatches
Robberies almost doubled over 2008-2009, but still only accounted for just 4% of all retail crime, by value.
Burglary
Burglaries accounted for 9% of retail crime losses in the 2008-2009 survey period.
Criminal damage
Criminal damage has more than doubled in 2008-2009, reaching 47 incidents per 100 outlets – nearly half of all stores.
Responding to the problem
Giving retailers the right information
Design Out Crime undertook an in-depth exercise to review and better understand the SME retail crime environment, speaking to experts in industry, government and the police. Two main conclusions were drawn.
- First, the market for securing small shops is saturated with a diverse range of product-based solutions.
- Second, in instances where products fail, human error is often at fault. Specifically, retailers often simply use the wrong solutions in addressing crime problems.
Designing anew business self assessment tool (BSAT)
The Design Out Crime challenged designers to redesign an online tool to help small businesses assess their vulnerability to crime.
Design agency A+B Studio was commissioned to bring to life information based around a set of questions devised by criminology expert Professor Martin Gill of the Perpetuity Group.
They redesigned the self-assessment tool and supporting materials by addressing four priority areas:
Get to the heart of the problem
Help users navigate to the most pertinent crime prevention questions to their needs.
Provide a flexible service
Give users a choice about how they interact with the tool, making it a resource to return to for crime prevention measures as the need arises.
Support action
Ensure the tool delivers relevant and digestible recommendations that are easy for users to act on (and that encourage them to do so).
Raise awareness
Create simple messaging and promotional materials that are relevant to SMEs and will drive use of the tool.
As well as devising a simple and appealing look for the tool, designers focused on giving users a clear, personalised and helpful experience that could address their needs as quickly as possible.
What more can designers do?
Understanding the problem
Part of the difficulty in addressing thefts from shops is that perpetrators use a variety of techniques to defraud the shop. They may hide merchandise, use metal-lined bags to prevent security tags from working, or fake returns.
Understanding how shop thieves steal is critical to the success of any design project.
In interviews, many shoplifters report that they find it very easy to steal. The following factors contribute:
- Poor store and packaging design
- Poor store layout: blind spots where thieves can conceal goods unseen
- Poorly designed packaging, making it easy for thieves to get items out of the packaging, then conceal and steal them.
- CCTV that is poorly specified and records images that aren’t good enough for a prosecution even if the thief is caught.
- Alarm systems that do not work.
- Tags that can be easily removed.
- Poor management.
- Sales staff are often either not motivated or not trained to look for suspicious behaviour and respond to it when they see it.
- Security officers not being properly supervised or motivated.
- Poor procedures.
Research has shown that staff sometimes find security procedures such as cashing up, checking CCTV and watching out for shoplifting get in the way of their ordinary duties and this is a key reason why these measures fail.
What kinds of interventions can designers make to help retailers out?
The BSAT tool and the RSA Designing Out Shoplifting competition are only the start of how designers can help address the issue of shoplifting.
Solutions may lie not only in designing improved shop security systems, but also in packaging and store design, or even communications campaigns.
There is particular opportunity early on the development of any new products. When creating new devices the problem of cost for many retailers must also be considered.
When we had the radio link, we caught and reported the theft of two cans of beer. The police came and asked us not to bother wasting police time the next time someone nicked a couple of cans of beer. Mahesh, convenience store owner, St. Albans