New research released by London BIDs Against Crime (LBAC) assesses the contribution of London’s Business Improvement Districts to crime-reduction across the capital, and identifies the challenges they face in addressing levy payers’ safety and security concerns.

Here are some of the key findings of the report:

• BID consultation feedback gathered from business communities across the capital clearly demonstrates that ‘safe and secure’ issues consistently rate amongst the top concerns for levy payers.
• Not only do the majority of BIDs have the solid foundations of a Business Crime Reduction Partnership embedded into their ‘safe and secure’ models, the overall benefits they deliver far exceed traditional town centre approaches to crime reduction.
• London BIDs are a valuable partner in raising counter terrorism awareness across the capital’s business communities due to their outreach and high levels of business engagement.
• Government cuts, a reduction in policing numbers, an upsurge in violent crime and changing policing priorities are all factors that leave BID operating areas and the very heart of our town centre communities vulnerable to crime, antisocial behavior and a downturn in economic prosperity.
• Against the backdrop of their own austerity measures and equally affected by policing cuts; national retailers are increasingly looking for a greater return on their levy fees through additional levels of BID security investment.

Highlighting the substantial impact BIDs have on preventing and detecting business crime and antisocial behaviour in the communities they serve, the report also critically examines the roles of partnerships across the private and public sector and makes achievable recommendations on how key partners and all stakeholders involved in crime reduction can collaborate to make BIDs safer places to work, visit and invest in, these include:

• BIDs should clearly document their financial ‘safe and secure’ commitment within their business plan as well as defining what crime reduction measures are being delivered on their website.
• BIDs should consider introducing a more uniformed approach to their crime reduction schemes by adopting the nationally recognised BCRP framework into their ‘safe and secure’ models or out-sourcing their BCRP to a specialist third party.
• National retailers are encouraged to introduce head office policies to support BID security initiatives in their local stores, covering direct participation in these schemes, the use of local town-link radios and active participation in BIDs’ Disc systems.
• NBCC and Met Police should define standard operating procedures to ensure a consistent quality of service is delivered to businesses and the public in town centres – this message must be communicated effectively to on-the-ground BID-funded police officers and officers with town-centre beats.
• MOPAC should issue guidance of best practice on how local authority community safety teams can work in partnership with BIDs to meet their shared objectives.
• The Home Office should increase its funding and commitment to the NBCC to benefit all stakeholders involved in business crime-reduction locally, force-wide and nationally.

Report author, Gordon Brockie says

“In addition to the positive findings and survey results, I was impressed to discover that many BIDs were taking a more holistic approach to tackling business crime by acknowledging how societal issues such as knife crime, hate crime, violence against women and offences against the vulnerable impact their own business communities. I was also surprised by the quality of business resilience support being delivered in central and inner London BIDs.

“I’m pleased to see some of the recommendations of the report are already taking shape and that more integrated ties have been established between London BIDs and the Metropolitan Police, Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime and London Councils. Although significant progress is being made, it’s anticipated that questions around statutory levels of responsibility will still remain an interesting area of debate.”

The UK’s first comprehensive assessment of private-sector business crime reduction schemes shows how they play an essential part in helping drive down low-level crime and anti-social behaviour.

“Business Crime Reduction Schemes: An examination of operation, management and best practice” , written by Doctor Andrew Stafford, senior lecturer in Criminology at the University of Gloucestershire, gathers objective information – for the first time – to show how local schemes ‘self-manage’ low-level crime and ASB to help fill the growing ‘policing gap’.

The ground-breaking report is the first attempt to assess the contribution of the growing number of private-sector crime reduction partnerships in the UK and was based on in-depth questionnaires and supplementary submissions from 243 organisations including Business Crime Reduction Partnerships, Business Improvements Districts (BIDs) and shopping centres.

The report confirms that private-sector crime reduction schemes:

• are ‘an essential part of modern-day crime control’, driving down low-level crime and ASB;
• help police deliver their obligation to prevent and detect low-level crime at a time when they have substantially reduced community policing;
• play a growing role in extra-judicial crime prevention and reduction initiatives such as Early Intervention and Restorative Justice schemes
• are usually 100% self-funding without financial support from public sector.

Police themselves recognise the important role played by the schemes, most of which work with local police forces.  However, the report shows that the level of police support is variable, and in many cases police involvement has declined over the last 5 years and has continued to do so in the last 12 months.

The report however identifies some worrying threats to private-sector crime reduction schemes:

• financial pressure on ‘the High Street’ is reducing subscription revenue and therefore financial viability;
• decline in police support reflects continuing pressure on public spending and de-prioritising of ‘victimless’ crime such as shoplifting;
• reducing participation of some retailers due to misplaced concerns regarding new data protection law.

The most successful schemes in the research shared a number of common features:

• Close working with pro-active and supporting local police;
• Use of technology to support close interworking and communication such as private radio and secure online information-sharing systems;
• The management of banning schemes which identify and then, if appropriate, ban trouble-makers from members’ premises;
• Involvement of active Boards of Management that meet at least quarterly;
• Interworking with other schemes, especially those in neighbouring areas;
• Measurement of performance and comparison of performance over time;
• Compliance with defined standards of Best Practice.

Report author Dr Andrew Stafford explains, “There really hasn’t been sufficient research in the past into the role of crime reduction schemes, of which there are many hundreds around the country. The contributions of such organisations extend far beyond the immediate benefits they provide to their members and in future years I hope we can look into these in more depth.

“I would like to thank all the crime reduction schemes who took time to complete our extensive questionnaire and submitted additional comments and observations which have found their way into the report. And also thanks are due to Littoralis Limited, who are behind the information-sharing system Disc, who supported this work throughout.”

About Dr Andrew Stafford

Dr Andrew Stafford is Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Academic Course Leader for Undergraduate Criminology at the University of Gloucestershire. Andrew has worked with police constabularies and with business crime reduction partnerships in cities to help design and implement crime reduction measures, evaluate initiatives, identify evidence-informed approaches and improve levels of public confidence and trust in the police and the criminal justice system. Andrew is part of the National Business Crime Centre’s Governing Board for BCRP national standards.
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