Designing Out Crime Officers (DOCOs) from three police forces have been given a glimpse behind the scenes during a visit to ASSA ABLOY’s largest manufacturing site in the UK at Willenhall, West Midlands.
The DOCOs from police forces in Cheshire, West Mercia and West Midlands were given a guided tour around the factory to see and learn how a wide range of locks, cylinders and keys are made.
They also watched a demonstration of how a door is put through its paces as part of the PAS 24 standard using tools ranging from a screwdriver to a hefty ram – similar to those used by police officers carrying out raids on domestic properties.
The visit was organised by Secured by Design (SBD), a police organisation which works alongside police forces around the UK, to ‘build in’ security measures and techniques into new and refurbished buildings in a wide range of sectors including residential, education, health, transportation, commercial and sport and leisure.
More than one million homes have been built to SBD’s crime prevention standards over the last 20 years with reductions in crime of up to 87% in new homes.
DOCOs, who are mostly based in police stations, work with designers, architects, developers and local planning authorities to incorporate crime prevention measures from the initial concept and planning stages through to final construction.
ASSA ABLOY specialises in door opening solutions. It operates in more than 70 countries with over 48,000 employees. Customers come from the institutional, commercial and residential marketplaces.
The site visit focused on two of ASSA ABLOY’s key brands Yale and Mul-T-Lock.
The visit included a demonstration in the factory’s dedicated residential showroom of Yale’s range of mobile phone app controlled smart, interconnected security products, including door locks, alarms and CCTV cameras.
There was also a presentation from Suresh Peri, Commercial & Technical Manager, of Mul-T-Lock, who explained their innovative eCLIQ technology, which allows both the granting and removing of access permissions remotely – an advanced system, which won Product of the Year at the National Locksmith Awards in December 2019.
Visiting the ASSA ABLOY Portobello site at School Street, Willenhall, West Midlands were Alison Gabbott, Mark Cotton and Colin Marples from Cheshire; Peter Aston and Jacqueline Godfrey-Hunt from West Mercia; and Adrian Bartlett from West Midlands. Also attending was Richard Waterhouse from Bromsgrove and Redditch Council.
Hazel Goss, SBD Development Officer, who arranged the visit, said: “We all had an amazing day at ASSA ABLOY, learning about what they do, seeing their new products and enjoying a factory tour. Their factory and operations are on such a huge and impressive scale. It’s great to see at first-hand how everything comes together to make the final products.
“On behalf of the Designing Out Crime Officers, I want to say a big thank you to the company for their time and hospitality. I am looking forward to arranging another visit for those Designing Out Crime Officers who unfortunately were unable to come on this occasion.”
ASSA ABLOY’s Martin Ward, Mechanical Senior Product Manager-Yale UK, said: “Yale are committed to developing products that keep our customers, and their properties, safe. That’s why we’re proud to work closely with the experts from Secured by Design to design out crime. We welcomed the opportunity to show them the measures we have in place and the exciting plans we have for the future.
“We’d like to thank Secured by Design for taking the time to visit our site at Portobello and for their continued efforts to keep our homes safe with stringent security measures. We strive to continue to design and manufacture products that meet these high standards and carry the Secured by Design accreditation.”
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