Community policing through environmental design

Crime Prevention

Crime Prevention through Environmental Design

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Crime Prevention through Environmental Design

Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) is a policing strategy where police organizations work with members of the community to improve the physical design and use the built environment to improve public safety, reduce crime, and improve quality of life in community. CPTED involves the police working with building planners and design professionals to create buildings or facilities that are designed to reduce the opportunity for criminal activity as well as working with residents and business owners to encourage them to take steps to better secure their property in order to reduce opportunities for crime.

The types of actions that can be taken by police officers and community members to employ CPTED to prevent crime include community members improving lighting of parking lots and lightening up their residential homes with flood lights or a front porch lights as well as fencing, alarms, and video surveillance. Policing agencies can provide residential and business builders and designers with guidelines to building a safer and crime conscious structure as well as providing a visual presence in order to deter the criminal element (Clarke, 2008). Police officers are responsible for more than just responding to crime and through their presence can deter criminals and improve neighborhood safety.

The end result of a CPTED analysis would be a community with a fewer number of crimes and police officers and community members that have developed a collaborative partnership that will result in better cooperation from community members and more effective police officers. The CPTED makes community members more aware of the benefits of a built environment designed to reduce crime and improve public safety as well as the partnership that is developed between police and community members through the community policing approach and resulted in better cooperation by community members in crime situations.

The relationship between CPTED and the SARA problem-solving process is SARA provides the framework for the CPTED strategies and community policing approach to be successful. SARA refers to the problem solving model where first the problem is scanned or identified and then the problem is analyzed in order to develop solutions. Next a custom response will be developed and lastly the alternative that is chosen will be assessed for its effectiveness. Through the SARA Model the police and community can develop physical designs that will create the most crime free and safe environment.

References

Clarke, R. (2008). The Theory of Crime Prevention through Environmental Design. Retrieved

June 12, 2012 from

http://www3.cutr.usf.edu/security/documents%5CCPTED%5CTheory%20of%20CPTED