Park Mark and Designing out Auto-crime

Safer Parking and Park Mark
The Safer Parking Scheme is an initiative of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), and was launched in 2004 with the objective of reducing crime and the fear of crime in parking facilities.  The primary aim of the scheme is to prevent criminal behaviour within the parking environment. Operators of a parking facility are required to adopt an active management strategy to ensure the minimal occurrence of crime.

The Park Mark award is given to parking facilities that have met the requirements of a risk assessment. In order to meet the standard required both a representative from the Police and a representative from the British Parking Association inspect the car park against the required criteria and only after they agree is the car park given the award. These requirements mean the parking operator has put in place measures that help to deter criminal activity and anti-social behaviour, thereby doing everything they can to prevent crime and reduce the fear of crime in their parking facility. By using car parks that display the Park Mark Award customers are supporting operators that have created a safer environment.

The City of York Council now has 13 city centre car parks that have achieved the Park Mark status, together with the four park and ride sites.  All the car parks are regularly patrolled by uniformed staff and most have CCTV cameras which are operated 24 hours a day from the Police Control Room at Fulford Road Police Station.  These car parks are:

·        Bootham Row

·        Castle

·        Esplanade

·        Foss Bank

·        Haymarket

·        Marygate

·        Monk Bar

·        Nunnery Lane

·        Peel Street

·        Piccadilly

·        St George’s Field

·        St Leonard’s Place

·        Union Terrace

Further information regarding the location of the car parks and the facilities available can be found on the Council website at http://www.york.gov.uk/transport/Parking/  and details of the park and ride service at http://www.york.gov.uk/transport/Parking/Park_and_Ride/

Designing out Auto-crime
Designing and altering the physical environment to reduce auto-crime, is one of the most effective tool we have available to us, as poorly designed car parks and other parking facilities increase the likelihood of crime occurring. An example of a design and improvement scheme, is where the Auto-crime Task Group have worked with the City of York Council and the University of York to improve all of their car parking facilities. Improvements include CCTV, improved lighting and signage and better management of landscaped areas which have had an impact in increasing surveillance opportunities. This has resulted in all of the University of York's car parks being awarded Park Mark status.