Measure type: Removing means

Removing means is the measure of reducing risk by reducing the availability of tools or other means conductive to crime.

Description

Many forms of crime require tools or materials: burglars use tools to force entry, vandals will use objects to destroy, graffiti artist require spray paint or markers. By making the access to these required tools more difficult, committing the crimes is made more difficult.

This form of crime reduction is most prominently effective in situations where the required tools are available at or close to the crime location. Arson as a form of vandalism for instance, thrives on the presence of flammable goods and burglars can be greatly aided by the presence of a ladder. Making sure these goods are not present, or not accessible can therefore increase the effort needed to commit these crimes.

Examples

Some examples of removing (the access to) means, are:

• Providing strict access control to debris-prone areas like construction/demolition sites
• Placement of vandalism prone elements far from "hang-out" areas
• Providing lockable sheds for storage of ladders and tools
• Providing an in-house switch for external power sockets (which can otherwise be used by burglars to operate power tools)
• Designing vandal-proof street furniture which can not be deconstructed into elements which can be used as tools to further vandalise.

Essential conditions

For this measure to be effectively used, one should have the means to control the access to materials required for committing the crime. This is most prominently the case if these materials are not already owned by the criminals, i.e., if the materials