Attempting to Reduce Hotel Burglary: Implementation Failure in a Multi-Agency Context

• NCJ Number: 219813
• Journal: Crime Prevention and Community Safety Volume: 9 Issue: 3 Dated: July 2007 Pages: 145-166
• Author(s): R. I. Mawby; C. Jones
• Date Published: July 2007
• Length: 22 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This article describes an evaluation of the implementation failure of a hotel burglary reduction initiative in Sunnybay.

Abstract

Recent emphasis upon multiagency working has gained momentum since the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act, and initiatives such as the Reducing Burglary Initiative have required Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRP) that apply for grants to demonstrate partnership working. However, successful partnerships are often difficult to achieve. The Sunnybay Burglary Reduction initiative was a case in point. In order to gain Home Office funding, the police and local council constructed a proposal that assumed a level of cooperation that proved impossible to achieve. Despite hotel burglary being a proven problem in the area, there was no recognition from the tourist sector that it was a priority, nor any acceptance that the strategy adopted was appropriate. As a result, implementation failure was evident both in terms of process and output. The model proposed was never fully operational resulting in hotels no better protected then when the initiative was conceived. In light of the high burglary rate in England and Wales in the early 1990s, the government targeted burglary as a priority. The Burglary Reduction Initiative was launched in 1998 as a key part of the Home Office’s Crime Reduction Program (CRP). The Sunnybay Hotel Burglary project was part of this initiative. The initiative focused on burglary involving guests, classified by the police as burglary (other) and aimed to achieve a 26-percent reduction. The project stressed the importance of partnership work in moving to reduce hotel burglary. However, crime reduction initiatives that depend on multiagency cooperation are vulnerable to a number of influences that could affect their effectiveness. This paper discusses these as they applied to the Sunnybay Hotel Burglary project. Tables, notes, references