Planning support
Planners and police can spot boilerplate crime prevention text a mile off.
It invites exactly the response it is meant to prevent: a police consultee with questions, an objection to answer, a condition you did not see coming, and weeks added to determination. Your application needs a Crime Impact Statement (CIS) or Crime Impact Assessment (CIA) written for the authority that will actually read it, not generic content added to your Design and Access Statement (DAS).
Why generic text backfires
Written for the local checklist, not a template
Many validating authorities publish local validation checklists that name the crime and security evidence they expect; we start every statement there, so it satisfies validation. But ticking the checklist is not what satisfies a police Designing Out Crime Officer (DOCO). DOCOs read for specifics: this site, this context, these measures, and a section that pastes in familiar principles, such as natural surveillance or "follows Secured by Design (SBD) principles," reads as generic no matter how compliant it is. So alongside checklist compliance, we assess the site's actual security risks and write controls specific to them, which is what stops a DOCO raising concerns, not policy alignment alone.
What handled looks like
A statement the consultee can agree with
Crime Impact Statements and Assessments
A CIS or CIA on a fixed fee, typically within four weeks, authored by an SBD Licensed Consultant. DAS security content is available as a lighter alternative where the local validation checklist allows it.
Police consultation
We consult the police DOCO where local validation requires or recommends it, where the project's risk profile justifies it, or simply where their local crime knowledge would sharpen the statement. We manage that relationship through determination, so the consultee response supports your application rather than qualifying it.
Conditions, understood
If a security planning condition such as SBD is proposed, we tell you what it will actually mean for the development, in cost and in design, before you accept it, and we can support its discharge after consent.
"I have noted the applicant's detailed and comprehensive Crime Impact Statement and agree fully with its findings. The document provides a strong foundation on which to implement security for this new building."
After consent
Planning is the start of the workstream, not the end
The commitments made at planning follow the project into design and construction. We can upgrade your CIS to a BREEAM Security Needs Assessment after planning, carry the security strategy into a full security design appointment, and see an SBD condition through to discharge, so nothing promised to the authority gets lost between stages.
FAQs
Questions we're often asked
Do we need a Crime Impact Statement for our application?
The validating authority's local validation checklist decides: some authorities name a CIS or CIA outright, others accept security content within the DAS. We check the checklist and local policy before quoting, and if the lighter route satisfies validation, we will say so.
When should we commission it?
Allow four weeks for the statement itself, and start while the design can still respond. A statement that points to designed-in measures reads very differently to a police consultee than one written after the drawings are frozen.
What if the police consultee still raises concerns?
We consult the DOCO before submission where local validation demands it, where the project's risk profile justifies it, or where their local knowledge would sharpen the statement, so concerns surface while they are cheap to address. If a consultee response lands during determination, we answer it as the statement's authors, rather than leaving your planning consultant to interpret security comments alone.
Does a CIS commit us to Secured by Design?
No. A CIS can propose measures aligned with SBD without committing you to certification; a commitment usually arrives, if at all, as a planning condition. If one is proposed, we tell you what it means in cost and design before you accept it.
Getting started is simple
Tell us about your project. We reply quickly with a fixed fee. Then the planning security workstream is handled: a statement that satisfies validation and the DOCO reading it, a consultee who has what they need, and conditions you understood before you accepted them.