Walk the bustling aisles of the FIT Show next May, and amid the sea of cutting-edge glazing, profiles, and hardware, one presence might catch you off guard: a police initiative. What brings Secured by Design (SBD) to the UK’s premier fenestration showcase? The short answer: your products are the front line of modern crime prevention.
For 37 years, SBD has worked to close the gap between architectural ambition and practical security. During the building booms of the 1960s to 1980s, home security was frequently an afterthought - windows were often as easy to pop open as they were to install. To stem the inevitable surge in break-ins, SBD transformed the landscape by introducing rigorous standards, backing independent test houses, and demanding third-party UKAS accreditation.
Today, over 700 manufacturers hold the Police Preferred Specification - the only official police accreditation for security hardware in the UK.
The real-world impact is undeniable. On residential developments incorporating SBD principles, crime rates plummet - some by up to 87%. Crucially, many of these installations safeguard social housing in communities facing the highest crime rates, protecting people where peace of mind matters most.
Behind these numbers is SBD’s nationwide network of Designing Out Crime Officers (DOCOs). Embedded within local police forces, DOCOs collaborate with architects, planners, and developers across education, healthcare, commercial, residential and car/freight parking sectors to eliminate vulnerabilities before ground is ever broken. Their first recommendation? Tested, robust products built by manufacturers like you.
Whether you are looking to certify your product range or simply curious about how security standards are evolving, Secured by Design will be at the show. Let’s talk about designing safer spaces together.
