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How to plan a Safer Business Action (SaBA) Day

Safer Business Action (SaBA) Days is a joint approach by police, business, private security, Business Crime Reduction Partnerships (BCRPs) and Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), working in partnership to focus resources into a designated location to create a significant impact to reduce crime. 

This planning document is intended to assist police and partners when planning a SaBA Day and equally applies should a Safer Business Action Night be chosen, targeting the night time economy.

The NBCC leads a steering group made up of retailers, partners and private security companies. If you are planning to run a SaBA Day contact the NBCC who can help with contacts and guidance.

Initial planning - areas to consider

  • Date – consider high risk dates with high footfall to create the biggest impact. This could include market days, seasonal sales etc.
  • Location – define the location of activity, the size of which should match the resources available.
  • Ownership – allocate a single point of contact so that there is clear identification of ownership, particularity when there are lots of partners involved.
  • Consult – speak with the local businesses to understand what their current issues/hot topics truly are. Each location is unique in its own challenges so consultation is key in ensuring the right partners agencies can support on the day. These aims then mean that businesses will feel more compelled to be involved if they can see instantly that the activity will help their immediate issues e.g. rough sleeping, prolific offenders, juvenile crime etc.
  • Aims – what do you want to achieve from the day, examples include a focus on prolific offenders, reducing ASB, supporting VAWG, raising awareness around crime prevention.
  • Approach – how will you achieve the aims? e.g. prevent, detect, deter? Proactive/reactive? See ‘considerations for activities’ below for a list of options.
  • Partners – who will you include? The objective is to run the days partnership to help raise awareness and breaks down any relationship or communication barriers that may currently exist.

There are many other areas of planning to consider which are covered in the NBCC comprehensive 'How to plan a Safer Business Action (SaBA) Day' guide which can be downloaded.