Secured by Design Accredits Disc, the Online Tool to Strengthen Business and Community Safety

“Disc Against Crime” is crime reduction platform and app used by BIDs (Business Improvement Districts) and BCRPs (Business Crime Reduction Partnerships) - partnerships made up of businesses, retailers, licensees, police, security companies, shopping centres and rural schemes. Disc enables these communities to share real-time details of incidents and known offenders, identify potential criminals, and alert local establishments to help them quickly respond to any safety threats.

The platform builds on the ethos of a ‘Neighbourhood Watch’ scheme but scales it to a town, city-wide, or force-wide level, enabling large communities to look out for each other with immediate, easily accessible and shareable information via a smartphone app or web portal. Littoralis, the business and software development company behind the platform, designed it to be a tool to empower communities to stay informed about crime and potential offenders whilst also raising awareness of crime prevention and ways to protect staff, customers and property.

Based in Brighton, Littoralis has over 30 years of experience developing software platforms such as online publishing systems, secure intranets, and secure document management solutions. Disc is their flagship product, used in more than 500 towns and cities across the UK.

Clients include Manchester’s BCRP who use Disc as a core tool for city-centre crime prevention; Norwich’s ALERT business-crime network supported by Norfolk Constabulary; and BID Camborne which supports over 310 member businesses in the town to help tackle issues such as anti-social behaviour and persistent offending.

Key elements of the crime reporting tool include:

Communications platform

·       •Access real-time alerts and submit incident reports via the app or web platform

·       • Instant communication between business and communities, for example if there is a travelling offender moving through the town causing violence or involved in criminal activity

·       • Easy tool for sharing news, updates and feedback

·       • Upload shareable information about local news and events in the area, add guidance, printable reference documents and crime prevention tips 

·       • Share images of unidentifiable people caught on camera to assist with the identification of repeat or known offenders

·       • Maintain an image gallery of known prolific offenders, shoplifters, or banned/ excluded individuals

·       • Submit incident reports and attach images for processing by the admin team

·       • Escalate incidents into formal crime reports if needed with optional witness statements which can be sent directly to the police

·       • Processes secure GDPR compliant data

•   Engagement Tool

·       • Instant messaging systems and urgent alerts with push notifications to encourage community participation

·       • Automated weekly e-newsletter which summaries local events and news

·       • Highlights the latest ‘news’ or intelligence reports

·       • Builds communities and strong links between business owners, police, councils, and community safety teams

Admin centre

·       • An intuitive, easy to navigate management system

·       • Easy automated processes to manage members, image galleries, current news, incident reports, and map hotspots, all configurable to individual schemes

·       ‘• Compliant by Design and default’ the admin centre has built in controls and processes to ensure GDPR compliance when sharing data and images

More information about Disc can be found here on their dedicated Secured by Design member’s page, or to book a demonstration or view their video see here.

Hazel Goss, SBD Development Officer, said, “It has been a pleasure to have Littoralis join us as members of Secured by Design. They offer a unique product aimed at tackling commercial crime. Disc is a Crime Reduction (SaaS) Platform and App used by BCRPs, BIDs, Shopping Centres, Retail Parks, Police, Councils, Security Companies, Retailers and PubWatch to help report, solve and prevent and combat crime and ASB. I’m looking forward to working alongside them for many more years to come.”

Steve Lang, Managing Director of Disc said, “Achieving Secured by Design status is an important milestone for Disc. It reinforces our commitment to helping communities reduce crime through secure, trusted, and police-recognised tools. We’re proud to be part of an initiative that puts safety and prevention at the heart of innovation.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SBD is owned by the UK Police Service with the specific aim of reducing crime and increasing safety for businesses and individuals.

SBD seeks to improve the physical security of buildings and the surrounding area using products such as doors, windows, locks and walling systems along with fencing systems that meet the SBD Police Preferred Specification security requirements.

SBD have many partner organisations, ranging from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government through to local authorities, housing associations, developers and manufacturers and work closely with standards and certification bodies.

SBD is the only way for companies to obtain police recognition for security-related products in the UK, through the Police Preferred Specification - a product-based accreditation scheme developed 25 years ago, which provides a recognised standard for all security products that effectively deter and reduce crime. SBD work with manufacturers and standards authorities to ensure that security standards are current and updated to keep pace with emerging crime trends.

Learn more about Secured by Design and our member companies at: https://www.securedbydesign.com/