Secured Environments is a new risk management scheme being launched on 12 April to promote good security practice in organisations by focusing on strategy, process and people.

ACPO Crime Prevention Initiatives in partnership with Perpetuity, one of the country’s leading crime and security consultancies and a spin-out from the University of Leicester, have developed the scheme which will compliment the existing ACPO-supported Secured by Design project.

ACPO CPI Managing Director, Richard Childs said: “Every organisation needs to develop its own detailed policy on security, supplemented with a security strategy that sets out how to implement that policy.”


Secured Environments is a quality assurance scheme that will assess organisations to see if they have made security an inherent part of how they are managed. If they pass the standard they will be certified as being secure by ACPO CPI and awarded the ‘Police’ Secured Environments Certificate.

ACPO CPI General Manager, Mr Alan McInnes said: “Police certification schemes like this give the public, customers and staff the confidence that security is being treated seriously and is an ongoing commitment and process by organisations who achieve certification.”

The scheme has been successfully piloted on a number of organisations including schools and business in different parts of the country.

A key advantage of Secured Environments is that it will help organisations to think about their risks and how to make the best use of security measures they already have.

Professor Martin Gill, Director of Perpetuity noted, “Organisations are encouraged to focus on processes and people rather than seeing investment in new technology as the sole answer; to this extent the scheme may help them save on unnecessary expenditure while developing a better overall approach to security.”

The first phase of the Secured Environments is aimed at schools and business.

(CL)