In this paper we report on a researcher - practitioner collaboration to deliver a crime reduction initiative across a borough in the West Midlands region of England. The circumstances of the collaboration and the initial analysis are explained. The crime prevention programme, which involved the situational crime prevention technique of target hardening, is described and a brief summary of the evaluation findings are included. We then consider the value of such collaborations for developing evidence-led interventions and discuss a number of issues which researchers embarking upon this type of project should consider: funding, timescales, data access, publication and evaluation. We conclude that, with due regard for these issues, such collaborations can be beneficial to all the parties involved.