CPTED: Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design

by Kelly M. Glenn

Because CPTED is a crime prevention strategy, it’s natural consequence is to reduce victimization, which is the ultimate goal!  Some other benefits of CPTED include:

• positively influencing human behavior; 
• building a sense of community with stronger neighborhood bonds; 
• allowing law enforcement agencies, locality administrators, and their community partners to approach problems in a holistic manner; 
• empowering individuals to play a meaningful role in crime reduction; and 
• improving quality of life by replacing fear of crime with an increased sense of security.

Before we go over each strategy, let’s take a look at a scenario first…

Daisha and Jameeca were both home from college for the summer.  They hadn’t seen each other in several months, so they were excited when both got jobs at a local clothing and shoe store.  As seasonal employees, Daisha and Jameeca got the shifts that long-term employees didn’t want – nights and weekends, but this wasn’t a problem for either of them because summer was their chance to sleep in a bit during the day!

Both Daisha and Jameeca really liked their jobs.  Daisha got to try on and model all of the cutest tops, and Jameeca was the first person to unpack the newest sneakers.  They each got a 30% discount on items they purchased from the store because the owner wanted employees to wear the products they sold.  Plus, working the same shifts meant they got to hang out at work and get paid for it. It was a win-win.  

If there was one thing neither Daisha nor Jameeca liked about their summer job, it was leaving for the night.  It wasn’t that they loved their job so much that they didn’t want to go home – it was that the back parking lot was scary.  It didn’t help that they heard rumors of an employee being attacked there a few weeks ago. Supposedly, she had ended up in the hospital and didn’t come back to work for the store.  No one had heard about any arrests in the news.

The parking lot was dark, and because the store stayed open until 10pm, all of the employees from surrounding businesses that closed earlier had already left.  As a matter of store policy, all employees had to leave through the rear door once the front door was locked for the night, and employees could not get back in.  Neither Daisha nor Jameeca had a car, so they always had to walk to the nearest bus stop, where the city bus would pick them up for the last rounds at 10:30. This meant that Daisha and Jameeca stood at the dark bus stop for quite a while waiting, and on several occasions, men had pulled up and offered them rides.  Sometimes, these men reminded them of the “creepy-looking” guys who would come in the store and ask for their help finding a special gift for their wife or girlfriend. Often, these guys didn’t end up buy anything.

It wasn’t long before Daisha and Jameeca were talking about putting in applications at other places, even if it meant they couldn’t work together anymore.  They simply dreaded leaving the store at night, especially when one or the other had the day off. Leaving the store alone at night was the absolute worst!  

In our scenario, it’s clear that the store could use a little help replacing their employees’ very valid fear of becoming victims with a legitimate sense of security.  Not only would the store possibly retain more employees, but they could literally reduce crime – and thus victimization – by implementing the strategies of CPTED.  

Let’s look at each one and relate it to our scenario…

Strategy 1:  Access Control

Access control involves creating clear boundaries between public, semi-private, and private properties and controlling access to those properties through the intentional design of streets, sidewalks, neighborhood and business gateways, and entrances to buildings and homes.  Access control can be accomplished with fences around a home, concrete barriers to direct people where to drive and park, gates to open and close a playground, etc.  

Basically, access control directs people and their methods of transportation in a way that is consistent with the owner’s preferences, and it also sends a clear message of when and/or where people are to gain access.  For example, a steel back door to a business that has no exterior handle clearly limits access to anyone coming in. Those doors only allow someone to open them from the inside. On the other hand, a glass door with a flashing OPEN sign directs people when and where to enter a business.

Strategy 2:  Surveillance 

Surveillance increases the visibility of people, vehicles, parking areas, and places where individuals go to perform activities.  Increasing visibility can be accomplished by strategically placing windows in businesses and homes, selecting materials for doors that allow people to see who is on the other side, removing landscaping that blocks sightlines, placing walkways where people who use them can be observed, and installing cameras in public places that are recorded and/or monitored.  

A very simple example of surveillance that can be done without much effort or any money is simply removing posters and flyers from convenience store windows so people outside can see any suspicious activity occurring inside.  On the flipside, a homeowner might use window tint in a bathroom so they can see out but outside people cannot see in.

Strategy 3:  Territorial Reinforcement

Similar to access control, territorial reinforcement is used to communicate what is public versus semi-private versus private property, but it may or may not literally control access.  Territorial reinforcement can be communicated visually in the form of signage, such as no trespassing signs, or it can be more psychological.  

Examples of psychological territorial reinforcement include things like landscaping that indicates where public property ends and private property begins.  Rows of hedges and flower beds can show territoriality. Even a garden flag with the homeowner’s initials on it is a form of territorial reinforcement, intentional or not.  Another example is a low-lying, decorative fence. A person could easily step from a public sidewalk over a low-lying, decorative fence onto private property, but psychologically, it discourages the behavior.

Strategy 4:  Maintenance

Maintenance is simply the upkeep and management of space, and it can be accomplished in more ways than we can list!  Maintenance includes mowing grass, picking up litter, removing graffiti, replacing lights, and making repairs. This aspect of CPTED is closely related to The Broken Windows Theory of crime prevention and sends the message that if someone cares about this property, they should, too!

Now that we have a great understanding of the four strategies that can be used to implement Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, let’s see if we can help Daisha and Jameeca feel safe keeping the jobs they otherwise love…

As it turns out, the rumors about the brutal attack on a former employee at the clothing and shoe store Daisha and Jameeca were true, and unbeknownst to them, the local police department has been working on a site assessment with the business owner to see if they can use a holistic approach to make the area safer for employees, customers, and anyone else on the property.  

The police department and the business owner agreed to meet twice at the property:  once during the day and once after sunset. This allowed them to view the property for possible safety concerns in the light of day and when it is dark out.  During both meetings, they considered all four strategies.

For access control, everyone agreed that the store had pretty clear access control during the day and at night at the front of the store.  There was a clear entry and exit from the public road into the customer parking lot, and the front door was clearly marked with signage that included the name of the store, the business hours, and an open/closed sign.  The front door is locked five minutes prior to closing time and is subsequently only unlocked to let a lingering customer out. The store policy doesn’t allow employees to exit through the front door after closing as a safety measure.  No one waiting outside can see when the employees are getting ready to leave if they only ever leave through the rear door.  

Access control for the rear of the store was a different story, though.  The building has a windowless, steel door with no exterior handle, and while that does send a clear message about access to the building from the outside, employees do take risks opening the door for presumed delivery drivers when they knock, as well as when they leave after their shifts.  

Additionally, the employee parking lot, where the former employee was attacked, bleeds seamlessly into the parking lot of a larger shopping center, and that shopping center has easy access to and from the public roadway.  In other words, the former employee’s attacker most likely accessed the employee parking lot by driving from the public road into the shopping center. The store owner cannot go through the expense of adding significant barriers, and no one wants her to add anything that could reduce the sightline of her back door.  After discussing a few other options, the store owner decided to invest in some huge concrete planters. She would space them out about three feet apart at the border of her parking lot and the shopping center’s parking lot. They would be pleasing to look at, allow for witnesses to see her back door and anything happening in the employee parking lot, and still allow a side access for her employees to drive in and park. 

Both the police department and the store owner agreed that their access control plan was promising!

Next, they considered surveillance.  In the daytime, surveillance outside the front of the store was fairly decent.  The store has two large windows flanking the front door, and neither one has signage or posters blocking the views.  While there are a few mannequins and clothing displays in front of the windows, they still allow the employees to see who is walking by or coming in.  At night, however, there were a few concerns. Anyone outside could clearly see what was going on inside, but due to the lack of lighting in the parking lot, it was pitch black if you were inside looking out.  There were light poles at the far end of the parking lot, but there was nothing close to the front door. The same was true at the rear of the building.  

The owner agreed that installing a few motion-sensored lights would serve a dual purpose:  they would alert employees when someone was outside and would provide some surveillance. Additionally, the store owner mentioned that she had been planning to get a “dummy camera” to put near the register, but now that she was getting useful feedback from the police department, she felt like it would be worth the investment to place one interior camera pointing at the front entrance, one interior camera pointing at the register, and one rotating exterior camera at the rear door.  The rear door camera will be connected to a monitor so employees can view the back parking lot before opening it for deliveries or leaving after their shifts.

The site assessment then involved looking at territorial reinforcement.  Because the business is a clothing and shoe store open to the public, there was not much territorial reinforcement the owner wanted to do out front.  Currently, people did not loiter in the customer parking lot after hours, so she felt it was unnecessary to put “No Trespassing” signs up. The police department reminded her that it’s easier for them to move people along if they find someone milling around the building at night if the property is posted, so the store owner agreed to post signage on the sides and in the rear of the building.  Because they had already found a solution to access control using the large concrete planters along the border of the employee parking lot, they felt confident that territorial reinforcement had been adequately addressed.

Finally, the police department and the store owner evaluated maintenance.  This is where a police department has to be mindful of its approach with private property owners, as addressing maintenance issues can easily feel like criticism to someone who feels they are doing the best they can.  In the case of our store owner, she had done fairly well with the upkeep of her store. She picked up any litter before opening up each day, and she has a painter who pressure washes and touches up the exterior paint on the building each spring.  The employees are good about breaking down boxes and stacking them neatly for recycling, and she makes small repairs, as needed. The only recommendation the police department made was to make sure she develops a schedule to routinely test the bulbs in her new motion sensor lights and replace them as needed.

As we can see, CPTED is a fairly painless crime prevention technique when we have a cooperative and motivated community partner, like a business owner who wants to retain employees and keep them safe, and a law enforcement agency that is trained in CPTED site assessments.  However, there are times when CPTED presents some unique challenges or necessitates larger teams. Sometimes, property owners are difficult to find or get in touch with. Others don’t have the financial ability to attempt certain strategies, and finally, some simply fail to acknowledge the problems or are unwilling to invest in the process.

Thankfully, more and more people, and even corporations, are being educated about Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design and see the possibilities!  Some have been reaping the benefits of implementing the strategies for years. Large-scale community planners have incorporated CPTED into their designs at the planning stages, using it to determine where to put sidewalks and street lamps in relation to building lots and community playgrounds.  Nationwide chain businesses, like convenience stores, have used CPTED to offer a safe place to pump gas and buy coffee in the middle of the night, and even local governments use it when designating jails, courthouses, and other buildings that are routinely accessed by the public.

Speaking of local governments, remember how Daisha and Jameeca became fearful while waiting for the city bus late at night.  The local police department contacted the city manager and requested additional lighting for that bus stop, as well as asked the city to develop a plan to install them at every city bus stop.  Not only did the store owner’s willingness to strategize with the police department protect her own interests, but it led to bigger changes throughout the city.

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, with all of its many benefits, has a much larger positive impact in our communities than we can ever truly account for.  As with any type of crime prevention, it’s difficult to measure what didn’t happen due to our efforts. After all, we can’t count the vehicles that were never stolen, the property that was never vandalized, or the victims who were never attacked, but through consistent, proactive, intentionally designed efforts, we can create environments where people not only feel, but are, safe and secure.

Special thank you to former students, Daisha Tisdale and Jameeca Morrison for inspiring the scenario in this article!

Suggested Citation for this Article

Glenn, K.M., Criminal Justice Know How, LLC, April 2020, CPTED: Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design. https://criminaljusticeknowhow.com/cpted-crime-prevention-through-environmental-design/.