After first reading about Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, I had a tough time wrapping my head around a crime prevention strategy that was community based, and not directed or managed by our Police. I grew up on a healthy diet of TV police dramas where the cops and detectives always solved everything, usually in 30 minutes or less! Over time, I’ve learned that no single agency can solve our complex social problems; successful police departments embrace and foster community partnerships, where the community and police are actively engaged in making downtowns and neighborhoods more safe and secure.
Chief Ennis connected us with
CPTED authority Greg Saville, an urban planner, former police officer and
founder of the International CPTED Association.
Greg is the principal of Alternation LLC, an international crime prevention and public safety consultancy
based in Port Townsend, Washington. He has helped us lay the foundation of our
CPTED program here on Church Street. An
affable Canadian (aren’t they all?), Greg has a strong sense of purpose and
focus. Because we’ve been talking about and using CPTED
strategies since 2001, the work has crept into our community’s vernacular. A few years ago, when I heard a business
owner ask, “How about we use CPTED?,” we
knew Greg’s work had made its way into our collective consciousness. What I value most about CPTED is how it helps to sustain and enhance urban diversity, connected neighborhoods, parks and schools, and activated streets and sidewalks. The core principles of CPTED were first used in Chicago’s public housing projects in the 60’s. The CPTED acronym was coined a decade later by criminologist and author C. Ray Jeffery. CPTED is also a strategy of Problem-Oriented Policing which Burlington’s police department embraces. It encourages less dependence on the criminal justice system, and more on bringing public agencies, the community and private sector together to analyze, evaluate and proactively increase safety and security.
CPTED focuses on three design strategies: natural surveillance which uses physical features like landscaping, activities and the presence of people to keep an area safe and secure; access control, including design features, such as safety gates and fencing, to limit access by intruders; and territorial reinforcement, such as maintenance, gives stakeholders a stronger sense of ownership and sends a signal that an area is cared for, respected and being watched over.
From Greg, we learned to approach CPTED in four steps.
First, define and
understand the problem – both physically (the environment) and psychologically
(perceptions of stakeholders). Greg
taught us how to develop our own CPTED site analysis form. The Design Centre for CPTED in Vancouver offers a great template to get started.
Begin by documenting existing conditions and emerging trends in public and private spaces in the downtown. Ask questions of your key users about their perspectives. How safe do they feel in specific areas in and around the downtown and why, or why not? Are exterior doors locked, are fire escapes accessible to taggers from the ground floor? Is trash, litter or graffiti present? What kinds of security enhancements might be needed on private property, including security cameras or hardened light fixtures with motion detectors (that can’t be broken with a thrown object?) Would better lighting or landscaping help to activate public streets and sidewalks at night? Are there changes to laws, rules, regulations or policies needed? Can financial incentives encourage private property owners to make changes?
Engage your stakeholders. Business owners, employees and residents know their area and have first hand experience of the relationship between crime and the environment. Also, both city departments and downtown social service agencies can provide insights on conditions of public and private space and trends in behavior. Because the majority of customers are women, we periodically organize daytime and evening walkabouts for small groups of women who work or shop on Church Street. If there are areas in your downtown where women will not walk, that means it’s unsafe and must be addressed immediately. We also make late night safety audits with downtown police officers, checking where crime is occurring and if lighting and better door locks are needed. We check police data, subscribe to and follow nixle.com and talk with officers serving our downtown district about the types of crimes occurring.
Create a plan from
your analysis and stakeholder responses. Keep it simple and realistic. Solving these kinds of problems takes
patience, persistence and time. Thank
people, businesses and organization by name in the plan (if appropriate) and distribute it broadly to policy makers, neighbors, and business owners. Promote your
accomplishments – even the small ones – so that stakeholders feel empowered and
encouraged and your CPTED efforts maintain credibility.
Finally, keep
track of your progress. For the sake
of your program’s success and credibility with the community, understand what’s
working, where it’s working and why (or why not). CPTED isn’t the silver bullet solution to
crime prevention. Because we humans and
our behaviors are always evolving, your plans will be ever-evolving.
Sign up to receive posts from Greg Saville's blog, SafeGrowth. The International CPTED Association
offers a wealth of information and certification programs. For those who can’t get enough CPTED, download
the latest edition of “CPTED Perspective,” published bi-annually. The Center for Problem Oriented Policing is
also a great resource. Download their
guide, “Using CPTED in Problem Solving.” A before and after example is shown below
