New trends have been emerging with safety in mind, though some of them suggest a more aggressive culture or an apocalyptic future. For the rest of us, the Design Against Crime centre based out of Central St Martins is hard at work researching and devising gadgets to help protect your stuff and ease your mind while you’re out and about.

One of the DAC’s more successful designs has been the M-shaped bike stands tested around Camden (and thus given the name of ‘caMden’) and to be implemented around UK as of Thursday. The unique shape makes it easier to lock your bikes wheels and frame to the stand instead of just the one bar at the top of the bike (tip: this is a bad idea).

They are also giving a test run to under-the-table clips that would allow people to secure handbags and rucksacks, making them harder to swipe. They also have a design in the works that would put storage areas under chairs allowing you to lock your belongings beneath you.

There’s also the “karrysafe” bag, which emits an ear-splitting sound when swiped from a shoulder. We’re all for this idea, but we’d need to see it in action to understand how the bag can tell the difference between being stolen and being shifted from one shoulder to another. Ditto to the future plans to design a mobile phone that explodes when a thief tries to use it…

Image courtesy of Sparticus via the Londonist Flickrpool.