Security Expert says design and architectural techniques improve security against crime

Design Techniques Reduce Crime Opportunity

The following is an edited excerpt from Infill Development: Strategies for Shaping Livable Neighborhoods, a recent MRSC publication. This publication may be accessed on our Web site at http://www.mrsc.org/textfill.htm or a copy may be ordered by calling our office.

Fear of Crime Pushes Families from Older Neighborhoods

Recently, crime rates have begun to drop in Washington State and other parts of the country. Even so, the fear of crime continues to impact a family's choice of where to live, as well as the quality of their community life. A variety of recent studies have identified crime as a major factor contributing to neighborhood decline, and to homeowners' decisions to sell homes and leave older neighborhoods. A Phoenix, Arizona, study found crime, and the perception of crime, to be the number one barrier to infill development (development of vacant land within largely developed areas).

Many middle and upper class families have responded to this perceived threat by choosing to live in gated communities that restrict access to authorized individuals only. These gated communities are often located at some distance from urban areas. Fences, locks, alarm systems and guarded entrances around homes and communities are typical responses to the perception of prevalent crime. Although families may feel safe inside their "secure enclaves," they also give up enjoyment of public places and other areas outside of these developments to feel secure. Fear of crime may discourage people from taking a night course, going jogging alone, or allowing children to play in a park. Residents of low-income communities, who cannot afford such expensive fortifications, are left vulnerable. Overall security and quality of life of city residents are not addressed by the gated community approach as Americans "shuttle from safe haven to safe haven through mean streets" (Vonier, 1997).

Crime Prevention Design Offers Low Cost Alternative

Instead, some communities have achieved impressive results through neighborhood and architectural design techniques that reduce the opportunity for crime and the need for expensive fortification measures. Effective safety design guidelines have been developed for use in Canadian cities, such as Toronto, through the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design approach promoted by Timothy D. Crowe and through techniques pioneered by Oscar Newman.

Most of the crime prevention guidelines focus on several basic principles to reduce crime opportunity. They have a common emphasis on improving an individual's clear vision of surrounding areas. For instance, increased pedestrian-level lighting, pedestrian routes that avoid blind corners and provide escape route choices, use of low fences or see-through landscaping, and use of building entrances visible from public streets or places will reduce potential hiding places for criminals. These guidelines also typically encourage visibility of activity areas from surrounding residences and uses. For example, maintaining well-lit activity areas, having first or second story windows that are not entirely covered by signs, designing front porches that overlook paths, parking areas, and public areas, and providing a variety of land uses with 24-hour activity can make it more difficult to commit a crime without detection.

Mixed use development provides a higher level of activity around the clock that, in turn, provides more "eyes" to keep watch and to discourage potential crimes. However, mixed use alone may not assure lower crime. In some cases, commercial uses in separate buildings in residential areas with abundant street-side parking, may serve to bring more outsiders into a neighborhood and increase theopportunity for crime. Mixed use can be designed to minimize opportunities for unobserved crime. When commercial establishments primarily serve local residents, the number of nonresidents entering the neighborhood is reduced. Residents will then be better able to monitor unusual behavior. Commercial and residential uses can be integrated and arranged in a manner that facilitates informal surveillance by neighbors.

Community appearance and upkeep can also signal that neighborhood residents and businesses are watching and are taking care of their neighborhood. For instance, prompt repairs, litter pick up, and graffiti removal are signs of an involved community. In fact, citizens responding to a city of Phoenix survey ranked graffiti as the number one factor in creating the perception that an area had a crime problem. Pasco, Washington, has a particularly effective graffiti abatement program. Pasco has enlisted juvenile offenders in community service work to remove graffiti within 48 hours.

Design techniques also can be used to clearly delineate the transition between public and private areas, making it more readily apparent when someone enters an area where they don't belong. For instance, low walls, hedges, identification signs, or a change in pavement type can be used to signal the transition without an unpleasant, fortified appearance. To stimulate a sense of ownership, the grounds in some public housing projects have been assigned to individual units rather than leaving them in ambiguous common areas. In turn, this has resulted in better maintenance and monitoring of those areas.

Several studies suggest that ease of access to outsiders is among the strongest predictors of burglaries. Measures that restrict the ease of physical access into buildings or the neighborhood, making it more difficult to enter unobserved, have been successful in reducing crime. Street designs that discourage high speeds and through traffic in neighborhoods can reduce the opportunity for a fast getaway or make unfamiliar cars more noticeable. Use of cul-de-sacs has been associated with significantly lower crime rates. However, use of traffic calming devices (such as narrow streets, on-street parking, street narrowing at intersections, or traffic circles) may achieve similar results while allowing more convenient vehicular and pedestrian circulation for residents.

Sarasota Success Story

A pilot Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) program apparently turned around a Sarasota, Florida, neighborhood in which 68 percent of the businesses had been victims of crime. According to a Sarasota official involved in setting up the program, crime dropped 40 percent between 1996 and 1990 when the program was initiated. Citywide crime rates dropped only 9 percent during the same period. Building permits, rental rates, and property values also jumped during that time.

Sarasota's program combined high visibility police patrols with changes to land use codes and development review. A CPTED review, conducted by a law enforcement officer and a trained planner or building inspector is required for development plans, conditional rezoning, and special exceptions. The review focuses on aspects of the building and site design that might facilitate access or the opportunity for crime. The ordinance requires that the applicant address concerns raised by the review team, but gives the applicant the opportunity to propose alternative solutions for meeting those concerns. The city commissioners then decide whether the applicant's responses adequately address the review team's concerns.

The zoning ordinance also contains mandatory requirements covering lighting, landscaping, maintenance, and other standards. For example, parking lot landscaping must either be of low height (a maximum of 2.5 feet) or use trees with canopies having a minimum clearance of 5 feet, to eliminate hiding places. Solid barriers may be used for buffering with a maximum height of 2.5 feet. All other buffering/fencing treatments cannot exceed 60 percent opacity unless buffering residential property. All exterior lighting must be maintained in an operative state. Parking, service, and pedestrian areas must be well-lighted. The ordinance includes incentives for balconies and front yard use to increase the "watchful eyes" effect. Unenclosed balconies can extend into a setback area and are not counted toward total floor area allowances. Greater heights are allowed for theaters and third floor residential and hotel/motel uses in business districts, which increase the around-the-clock activity and discourage after hours crimes. Nonconforming use provisions were revised to eliminate requirements that discourage improvements exceeding 10 percent of the assessed valuation. All Sarasota public projects, whether or not in the pilot area, incorporate CPTED principles, and businesses receiving city redevelopment funds are subject to CPTED review.

Sarasota's experience demonstrates that crime prevention design techniques can achieve results at minimal program costs. Most of these measures can be incorporated into project design at little or no additional cost to the local jurisdiction or the project proponent. Crime prevention design may not be able to do the job alone. Other programs, such as community policing and block watch programs that emphasize working with community residents for crime prevention, seem to be putting a dent in crime rates in cities like Seattle. Crime prevention design, in combination with other innovative programs, can offer considerable "bang for the buck" in the war against crime.

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