CPTED: Community Policing

Community policing requires many different policing strategies that attempt to reduce crime, create relationships and involvement with various communities. One community policing strategy that is used today is crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED). CPTED is a strategy used that attempts to control behavior through design. C.Ray Jeffrey defines crime prevention through environmental design as:

Encompassing the criminal offender perspective regarding an environment and the risk of getting caught when committing a crime and the social dynamics, sense of ownership of the environment, and their associated protective actions by persons who work, live, or traverse the environment en route to another destination (cite).

Within CPTED

Natural access creates spaces that are clearly identifying a point of entry. Another form of natural access would be locking or closing a gate between the front and backyard gates. By creating natural surveillance you reduce crime in areas due to the placement of psychical features, people and how it maximizes visibility. A few examples of natural surveillance include: video cameras, inside of buildings, glass walls and windows. The third principle territorial reinforcement involves the use of psychical attributes to express ownership. Examples of territorial reinforcement include fences, signage, landscaping, lighting and sidewalks and pavement design. Within the three principles are three concepts that better explain the principles of CPTED. The concepts used to explain CPTED further are maintenance, milieu and target hardening. Maintenance can better describe territorial reinforcement and is described as characteristics of an environment that express ownership of the property. It is noted that deterioration of property indicates less ownership involvement and results in more vandalism. A theory that explains this concept is the

The idea of CPTED began in 1971 by C.Ray Jeffrey were he wrote a book titles “Crime Prevention through environmental design”. He began investigating the psychical environment and the incidents of crime. Jeffrey created the term “CPTED” and his works included interviewing inmates in attempts to show a correlation between the crimes committed and the environment where the crimes occurred. In 1972 Oscar Newman came along and created an element of CPTED called defensible spaces where he explained how large scale buildings made it nearly impossible for residents to recognize strangers. He also stated that unsupervised access points made it easy for offenders to enter the place and how living in the “projects” made you more susceptible to crime. He concluded that crime was lower with the visibility and the best surveillance. The broken windows theory was created in 1982. The concept described a theory where if a building that is left with graffiti, broken windows, or trash for a long period of time, disorder around the buildings will spread. The first CPTED training program began at the University of Louisville in 1985. Criminologist Timothy Crowe wrote” Crime Prevention through Environmental Design: Applications of architectural Design and Space Management Concepts”, which provided law enforcement and