In 2024/25, the Met recorded over 951,803 crimes across the capital. Robbery is up nearly 9% year on year. Theft from the person runs at five times the national average.
I’m not sharing those numbers to frighten anyone. I’m sharing them because most people I speak to, smart, successful people, have no idea how much the picture has shifted in just three years.
Here’s what concerns me.
The security industry’s answer to rising urban crime has been to sell more hardware. More cameras. More alarms. More apps. The assumption is that stacking technology solves the problem. It doesn’t. It just creates a false sense of comfort.
Real security starts with a different question: what does a criminal see when they look at your home?
Criminologists call it “target hardening”. The principle is simple. An offender makes a decision in under thirty seconds. They read the street. They scan the door. They look for weakness. If the entry point looks considered, engineered, deliberate, they move on.
This is why I’ve always believed security is an architectural discipline, not an electronics one. The physical barrier is the first line. Everything digital comes after.
Most homeowners in London still treat their front door as furniture. Something that matches the hallway. Something the estate agent chose. That thinking made sense twenty years ago. It doesn’t any more.
The conversation we should be having isn’t about which brand of camera to buy. It’s about whether the fundamental entry points of our homes match the reality of the city we live in.
London is a magnificent place. I chose to raise my family here. I chose to build my business here. But loving a city doesn’t mean ignoring what’s changing inside it.
The front door is the first conversation your home has with the street. In 2026, that conversation needs to carry weight.
Ali Aydan: London is changing. Security must adapt.
•