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Preventing Pay Phone Damage (From Business and Crime Prevention, P 263-282, 1997, Marcus Felson and Ronald V Clarke, eds.)

NCJ Number
165686
Author(s)
C Bridgeman
Date Published
1997
Length
20 pages
Annotation
Strategies used by British Telecom (BT) to address vandalism to pay telephones in Great Britain are examined.
Abstract
BT experienced 55,000 crimes against the cash compartments of their pay telephones in the 1992-93 fiscal year. These crimes cost the company some 20 million pounds. The company reduced the number of crimes to 17,000, which cost 5 million pounds, by 1994-95. It accomplished this by reorganizing its pay telephone management. Initiatives in earlier decades all involved design changes to the original red telephone kiosks and the telephone equipment inside them. However, levels of telephone vandalism remained constant. In 1985 BT initiated a 160-million-pound modernization program, which included more open designs, lighting, and other changes. However, vandalism continued and a significant percentage of telephones were malfunctioning at any given time. BT reorganized its pay telephone management in the late 1980's to improve coordination of a more sophisticated range of preventive activities. In late 1992 BT launched its 13-million-pound Security Enhancement Program. The program had three elements: target hardening through the addition of alarms, joint investigative and law enforcement operations between BT investigators and local police agencies, and education and awareness through media campaigns. The parallel experiences in Great Britain and Australia underscore the importance of three elements in successful strategies: the use of situational crime prevention techniques, the development of quality information, and the importance of effective management. Illustrations, table, figure, notes, and 17 references (Author abstract modified)