TBH rough areas are safer when it's dark and all the teenagers aren't hanging around smoking weed and making trouble the only people I see late at night is people walking home after they have been clubbing some of them look rough as hell but so far no one has said a word to me , sucked there teeth at me or tried to rob me.
To be honest I doubt you're really an attractive target for a thief. Someone successful/quite well off carrying a laptop bag and unlikely to cause a fuss would be though. It's perfectly normal for staff to be protected in this way, especially if they are carrying confidential information. You walking back from the off licence with a large bottle of WKD is hardly the same thing.