On the 20th February BBC Inside Out Yorkshire aired a program which explained to watchers about the problem with lock-snapping on Europrofile door cylinders. There was then great debate on this site about whether the BBC should have aired the program or not due to the threat of widening the problem and alerting burglars to the issue who hadn’t previously known about it.
This does then bring up the question about the balance of information. On one hand the public do need to know about potential issues so they can be proactive and do something about it. On the other hand you don’t want to say too much because it can help spread the problem. The BBC program last week was accused of giving too much information and educating potential burglars.
There was a similar situation years ago when window security was called into question. Many years ago a national newspaper highlighted the problem of externally glazed windows, but also pretty much provided a step by step guide on how burglars did it! Educating all morally corrupt people on how to break into all 1st generation PVCu windows!
There clearly has to be a balance between educating the public about problems but doing it in a way that doesn’t inform burglars on how to do it. It’s a difficult thing to get right, but you would think that with all the skilled producers and technology available it wouldn’t be that difficult to do it. So far, I don’t think anyone reporting on industry related problems has got the balance right so far.
