12
Jul
2013
By Calvin at 09:14 GMT, 12 years ago
I’m really pleased to see that the DHF have a new website, which includes some information for householders.
The Door & Hardware Federation represents all the key manufacturers and installers of industrial, commercial, pedestrian and garage doors and powered gates, as well as manufacturers of locks, building hardware and architectural ironmongery. They are a long established and well respected trade association who can trace their roots back to 1897. They currently have around 250 members.
I clicked on the main tab on their new home page marked ‘Homeowners’ and then clicked ‘Home Security’ to see what there was. Well, although the Home Security Guide wasn’t available when I clicked to see it, there’s still quite a lot of really useful information on the site and I would thoroughly recommend a visit.
However, I was disappointed to read the headline on their Home Security page, which says: ‘Home security is under threat now more than ever before’. I think they should re-think this statement in the light of the facts.
The Facts
- British Crime Survey 1995 (Crime in England and Wales) Burglary estimated at 1.74 million for the year, which is 8.4 homes in every 100 got burgled (on average)
- Crime Survey for England and Wales Bulletin September 2012 Burglary estimate 0.63 million for the year, which is 2.8 homes every 100 homes were burgled (on average)
Now, call me ‘old fashioned’, but I don’t see how these figures could possibly equate to a statement suggesting that home security is under more of a threat now than before, because surely it’s the other way round!
In fairness to the DHF I think I may know what they’re trying to say. This is the fact that methods to overcome all sorts of locks, which used to be known about only by the manufacturers and specialist Master Locksmiths, can now be viewed, ‘warts an’ all’, on YouTube. So it would be correct to say that door locks (and therefore some doors) are under threat like never before.
The DHF have most definitely played a part in this huge reduction of burglary and crime in general by supporting their members and developing standards and test specifications to make sure their members’ products actually do what they are supposed to and hats off to them for that, but I should also offer up praise to some other keys players that have aided this quite incredible reduction in burglary.
The inventiveness of our security industry in general has delivered so many excellent solutions. Organisations, such as the British Standards Institute, the Loss Prevention Certification Board and many other test houses and certification bodies have played a major role and yet the public very rarely hears about them. There’s a whole boat-load of criminologists who have found out what works and why and then there’s the police officers and staff who have listened to them and put their advice into action. I should also mention some fantastic police initiatives that have delivered the bacon; projects such as ACPO’s highly successful Secured by Design, which encourages developers to design out crime opportunity at the design stage thereby future proofing new and refurbished homes and dare I mention Alleygaters, which has hugely reduced the opportunity for burglary against terraced homes with back alleys.
In the end though, it’s you the public who’ve actually made the difference, because it’s you who have listened and acted upon the advice given to you and bought the products and services. The British Crime Survey of 2008/9 says as much: “The level of home security remains an important factor in risk of burglary victimisation”. And the 2009/10 survey presented the findings below as proof of that statement...
- Less than basic home security measures 5.8%*
- Basic security 0.9%
- Enhanced home security measures 0.6%
* 5.8% of households with less than basic security would get burgled each year against 0.9% of householders who have basic security.
So, although there is still much to do to get burglary and all other crime down still further we’ve all been doing a pretty good job.
I do hope DHF go back to their marketing people and get that statement changed though
– watch this space.
DHF Website: http://www.dhfonline.org.uk/home.aspx
