C P T E DV O L U M E 9

I S S U E 2

MAY/AUG 2010

Most transit agencies tend to focus crime prevention effortsonboard transit vehicles, however studies show the majority oftransit crime occurs outside the bus, at the bus stop. At thesame time, crime data collected by police often focuses on thecharacteristics of the offender and fails to describe the physicalcontext of the site at which the crime took place.

As Transportation Planners work to improve strategies forgrowing ridership, it’s worth it to include a crime analysis alongwith an evaluation of the physical and social environment atbus stops. To grow ridership we must first identify the barriers.

CONTINUED PAGE 2

PERSPECTIVE

THE BUS STOPCRIME HOT SPOT ORCOMMUNITY BUILDINGBLOCK?

Megan CarrCivitae, LLC

IN THIS ISSUE :Cynthia NikitinProject for Public Spaces,New York

Cynthia is Vice President for PublicBuildings and Downtowns and the direc-tor of the Civic Centers Program at theProject for Public Spaces in New York.

From July 26-29, I participated in a Safeand Resilient Cities 3-day CapacityBuilding Workshop hosted by CSIR Mer-aka Institute in Pretoria, South Africa,organized by the UN Habitat for SaferCities. CSIR is a government fundedresearch institute and is involved inlocal safety planning with communitiesto engage them in creating great andsafe communities.

CONTINUED PAGE 7

SAFE &RESIL IENT CIT IES

AN AFRICAN CONFERENCEBY UN HABITAT AND CSIR

2010 ICA CPTEDConference

Calgary, Canada October 18-20

The theme of this year's conference is21st Century CPTED - Collaboration,Partnerships, Empowerment. It willbe held at the Coast Plaza Conference

Centre, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Improperly located bus stops draw crime

Once barriers are identified,we can begin to explore waysfor a) removing them and b)replacing them with incentivestowards attracting new pa-trons. As Brand Specialist,Carl Cummings suggests:“The bus stop is the storefront to your service. If youdon’t feel comfortable at thestore front you aren’t likely toshop at the store.”

The physical conditions andcharacteristics at bus stopsconvey many loaded and sub-tle messages regarding thepresence or lack of social con-trol. This is critical informationas it factors directly into one’sassessment of perceivedsafety and evaluation as towhether this is a form oftransportation that wouldserve one’s needs. Regardlessof whether the site is actuallya crime target, for many po-tential transit patrons, it’s theperception of crime on whichthis evaluation is based.

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BUS STOPContinued

.The majority of the high crime stopswere located at intersections involvingvarious inactive and minimally activeland uses including vacant and dilapi-dated buildings, empty lots and surfaceparking lots. A number of the siteswere without adequate lighting, nearbyshops, public phones or police sub-sta-tions.

Most notably, vacant buildings werepresent at 83% of the high crime sites.Furthermore, crime was significantlyhigher for intersections with an unde-sirable establishment including bars,liquor stores, check cashing establish-ments, and Single Room Occupancy(SRO) hotels.

Based on these findings it’s apparentthat land use plays a vital role in influ-encing safety at bus stops; both in pro-viding opportunities for naturalsurveillance as well as determining thelevel and type of activity present onthe street.

Why is it that some are“hot spots” for crimewhile others can serveas building blocks forcommunity?

Two recent UCLA studies(Loukaitou-Sideris, 1999 &Loukaitou-Sideris et.al 2003)examine the physical attributesof high crime bus stops in LosAngeles. What’s especially in-teresting about these studies isthat of the nearly 19,000 busstops in L.A., it was found that18 percent of the total crimeincidents occurred at just tenbus stops. Such disproportion-ate distribution of crime rein-forces the importance ofevaluating the physical contextof the site.

Were there consistent attri-butes among these sites? If so,what were they?

Continued page 6

BEFORE...land use prior to redevelopment in Los Angeles

AFTER...developed land use with bus stop access

Garner ClanceySydney Institute ofCriminology, Australia

Having been a crime preventionconsultant for over eight years,I am acutely aware of thepressures on consultants todevise the rightrecommendations. What is therole of CPTED participants withtheir clients in their pursuit ofobjectivity? Do crime riskassessment reports reflect moreof the client’s desires than thereality of negative CPTEDresults?

To assess the risk assessmentresults and question clientinfluence over CPTEDpractitioners, I reviewed fourreports from New South Wales,Australia. They were similar toCPTED assessment reports injurisdictions everywhere.

The Crime Risk AssessmentReportsThese reports, prepared in2008, ranged from 10 – 43pages and were developed forquite different land usedevelopments, including:

A new heritage walk

Re-development of apublic hospital

Expansion of an artscentre

A large new mixed usedevelopment

B I T I N G T H E H A N D

CPTED principles have differentrelevance in each case. One reportstates that “the principle of accesscontrol has been omitted entirely fromthe assessment ... owing its lack ofrelevance to this developmentproposal”. This may be true for otherdevelopments involving public space.

Standards of accountability

Many recommendations are difficult toquantify. This means it can be difficultto determine the adequacy of thesuggested remedies. For example onereport continually mentioned:

“…after hours managementmeasures such as adequatelevels of lighting, CCTV andsecurity patrols”.

What constitutes ‘adequate levels oflighting, CCTV and security patrols’?The standards one would use to assessthese practices is open tointerpretation. Unanswered questionslike these render recommendations ofthis kind somewhat hollow.

Favourable Commentary

All four reports tended toprovide favourablecommentary regardingbenefits of the proposeddevelopment. For example:

“The [proposeddevelopment] will alsoact as an activitygenerator byattracting more …users who will beintrigued by the highquality design …”

“We regard the overalldesign … as robust,reinforcing accessprinciples, strongamenity and attentionto security and publicsurveillance.”

Were these observationsobjectively true? Was theredata presented to supportthem? Were they influencedby the relationship betweenthe consultant and the client?

3Continued on page 9

T H AT F E E D S YO U

Physical AccessPart of access control is“wayfinding” - the ability to knowwhere you are and where youwant to go. Users of public spacesneed to have clear signage thatindicates location, maps, nearbyplaces of interest, contact andsupport information.

Access must be obvious, espe-cially between high-use areas, likeparking and restrooms. Clearlydelineated walks and trails protectthe environment, as well as pro-vide a sense of direction andsecurity. Cut-throughs should beclosed off or opened up and hard-ened to create a more safe andsustainable environment.

Visual AccessThough maximum visibility is of-ten sought, especially in urbansituations, privacy may be desir-able in more rural and naturalsettings. The determination fordesired visibility is based on anassessment of risk and user ex-pectations, as well as overall pub-lic safety.

VIRGINIA’S OUTDOORPLAN

Josh Brown,ICA Vice President

These are excerpts from theVirginia Outdoor Plan, Chapter 8,regarding outdoor green spacesand CPTED.

Using CPTED in public spaces isnot new—it has been practicedsince the early 1970’s. However,its application to park and naturalsettings is more recent.

Providers and users of outdoorrecreation need to be keenlyaware of ways to integrate safetyand security into the design andprogramming of outdoor facilitiesand activities. Many social aspectsof outdoor recreation areinfluenced by a person’s sense ofsafety and security.

Principles of CPTEDDesign, maintenance, programscheduling and community sup-port contribute to safe parks andopen spaces. Though design alonewill not ensure that sites are com-pletely crime free, it can provide abalance between perceivedthreats and maintaining a peace-ful, natural environment.

Principle applications of CPTEDneed to be focused on places withhigh use at access points topathways, parking areas,trailheads, restrooms,playgrounds and courts. Isolatedor problematic areas receivinginappropriate use may also beimproved by applying CPTEDprinciples.

4

Strategically placed viewing op-portunities include seating nearplaygrounds, courts, beaches andconcession stands, and overlooksat piers and ball fields. Vendorsor shared public facilities locatednear entrances also create moretraffic and visibility.

Lighting protects facilities andusers; however, lighting in theabsence of witnesses shouldnever be equated with safety(McKay, 2006). Lighting shouldalways reflect the intended hoursof operation. For example, light-ing of playfields or structures inlocal parks when not in use mayactually encourage criminal activ-ities.

Defined OwnershipClearly delineated propertyboundaries are the most commonform of defining ownership.Signage, logos, surface treat-ment, fencing and gateway treat-ments are other ways to expressownership.

Continued on page 8

TORONTO JOINS IN

Another alternative option forCPTED practitioners is Toronto'snew city hall, more specifically therecent opening of the massivegreen roof and public garden.

Toronto's iconic city hall was builtin the 1960s as a monument tomodernism. Semi-circular andbleak cement walls wrappedaround a saucer-like city hallchamber. The ground level didfeature opportunities for winterskating rinks and summer con-certs. But mostly the massiveupper and lower public levels ofthe public spaces were slabs ofcement sameness. Bleak andfeatureless, they provided nosense of territoriality nor opportu-nity to gather for casualsocializing. In short, they were a"no-man's" land.

Removing trees for sightlines,paving land for surveillance, andburning excessive energy withfloodlights at night are not sustain-able. Too many CPTED practitio-ners act as though they were theonly option for safety. That is notonly unfortunate. As anyone knowswho has ever read a science articleor environmental story aboutclimate change, it is also unethical.

Environmental sustainability rarelymakes it into CPTED recommenda-tions. Too many practitionersover-trim trees, pave scary placesinto slabs of sameness, or lightwalkways like a championshipgame at a stadium.

It need not be so.

There are plenty of safe options.Urban gardens humanize vacantland, like Boston’s Urban Gardenprogram in Boston or thecommunity gardens alongPhiladelphia's thriving SouthStreet. These are land uses thatbring residents down to anotherwise vacant area. Theyprovide an opportunity for positivesocial exchange (a strategy from2nd Generation CPTED) and theyand provide legitimate eyes on thestreet (a strategy from 1stGeneration CPTED).

Other options were featured inCPTED Perspective last year. Theyincluded live walls to preventgraffiti in the UK and in Japan.They also included the IntersectionRepair program in Portland whereresidents used recycled materialsand green roofs to re-build theirresidential intersections, bus stops,and public sitting areas. 5

AN ENVIRONMENTAL DNA FOR CPTED

Gregory SavilleAlterNation Consulting

ENVIRONMENTALCARE

No more.

Once desolate slabs of cementsameness are now covered bytrees, shrubs and landscapes.Sitting areas offer respite andample emergency phones provideaccess to security. Best of all, thegreenery enhances the iconicstructure of the building; it doesnot detract from it.

All kinds of people now takerespite from the busy streetsbelow. Legitimate eyes on thisstreet provides what Oscar New-man called defensible space. Thegreen areas and gardens are alsoenvironmentally friendly and verysustainable. They reduce heatonce radiating off acres of cementand they break the monotony ofthe cement jungle.

Safety and sustainability can be-come part of our civic DNA if welearn how to make it part of theCPTED and SafeGrowth message.

Toronto’s newpublic gardens andgreen space on therooftop at city hall

According to researchers familiar with the is-sue, placemaking improvements such asthese are all factors in reducing bus stopcrime.

By adding street lighting and replacing vacantbuildings with active businesses, natural sur-veillance opportunities are provided from sur-rounding businesses. Placemaking at a humanscale helps establish the pedestrian environ-ment. This is demonstrated by human scalefaçade improvements, pedestrian walkways,lower lighting, intersections at regular andcomfortable intervals, and trees that canserve to define pedestrian areas while alsoproviding welcome shade.

Perceptions change when action is taken

The LANI example demonstrates how it ispossible to 1) identify deterrents and 2) re-place with incentives (invest in design im-provements). This sends a clear message ofsocial control, helps change perceptions andgrow ridership.

Notes:Loukaitou- Sideris “Hot Spots of Bus StopCrime: The Importance of Environmental At-tributes” 1999

Loukaitou-Sideris, Liggett, Iseki and Thurlow“Measuring the Effects of Built Environmenton Bus Crime”2003

Reinforcing the importance of access control, it wasfound that movement predictors such as nearby alleysnear an intersection had an almost double crime inci-dence rate. Also present at a number of the high crimesites was litter thus supporting the importance of imageand maintenance towards communicating social control.

Bus stops as building blocks

Now let’s look at bus stops that have proven to serve asbuilding blocks for community. Also in Los Angeles, inresponse to the civil unrest in the 1992 riots, MayorRiordan launched the Los Angeles Neighborhood Initia-tive (LANI) designed to restore people’s sense of owner-ship in their communities. Recognizing that bus stopscan function as focal points in communities, the organi-zation developed community plans starting with im-provements around bus stops. New York’s Project forPublic Spaces was hired to assist the neighborhoodgroups who were each was given a grant to develop abus stop area plan. The members of these organizationshave planted trees, installed streetlights, redesignedstreets and transformed vacant lots into parks and com-munity gathering places.

While LANI hasn’t done impact studies, there have beenmany positive outcomes. For instance, the initial$100,000 seed investment went to the creation of atransit park in North Hollywood. (see photo) As a resultof this investment, 8 new businesses were attracted tothe site replacing formerly vacant facilities. An addi-tional $500,000 was invested in property improvementsabutting the park and $60,000 in private funds wereinvested in park improvements. The investment alsoserved to create 30 new jobs in the immediate vicinityof the park.

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C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 2

For example, I lead a discus-sion on urban space and itsrole in safety, linkages to inte-grated development planning,how public space can createsense of ownership, and be-come an asset. The popularityof the Fun Parks/ Fan Parks allover South Africa during theWorld Cup spoke eloquently tothis point. Parks, plazas, va-cant lots, backyards, areasaround transit stations wereturned into places where fanswatched matches, internationalteams alighted from buses andstarted pick up soccer gameswith local kids, people stayedout past dark.

One part of the event wascalled the Capacity Buildingworkshop for community facili-tators from Korogocho (one ofthe largest informal settle-ments in Nairobi, Kenya). Ithad community facilitatorsfrom three pilot projects inSouth Africa facilitating ses-sions on local safety interven-tions and principles of safeplaces.

One example was a soft spo-ken, brilliant young man by thename of Daniel Oyongo, thefounder of a musical social em-powerment group called HopeRaisers (www.hoperaisers.com)that uses music and perfor-mance to change the lives ofthe kids living in Nairobi’sslums.

Another part of the event wascalled A Local Safety Partner-ship Building day. It broughttogether many different organi-zations to share approachesand work, explore ways tobuild and formalize coalitionsand partnerships and developjoint funding proposals for col-laborative work.

Overall, the participants, lead-ers from all over South Africa,dedicated to their work andtheir client communities, weresavvy in terms of the roots ofunsafety and the role of com-munities in creating their ownsecurity. They were, however,unaware of the types of urbanplanning, land use, and designprinciples that would physicallysupport their social,humanitarian, and economicdevelopment missions.

SAFE &RESIL IENT

CIT IES

CONTINUED FROM COVER

This included:smart growth,SafeGrowth,livable communities, andplace-making.

Consequently, I introduced theseideas and make a clear linkagebetween their goals and that ofthe safe communities and UNHabitat organizations. Participantsfrom Namibia, Kenya, and SouthAfrica really “got” our PPS handson evaluative engagement pro-cesses including our activity map-ping and observation techniques,place evaluation and people-fo-cused collaborative visioningexercises.

United Nations Habitat headquar-tered in Nairobi wants to enlist thehelp of the Project for PublicSpaces on an international safecities campaign with an Interna-tional World Safer Cities confer-ence taking place in Bahrain in2012. We need to identify safercity candidates; those made saferby improving their public spacessuch as New York City (now saferthan London). Suggestions forbest practices are welcomed fromthe ICA, so please do share!

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Public spaces and safety workshopping in Pretoria, South Africa

ProgrammingThoughtful programming willincrease the number of us-ers, thus decreasing the op-portunity for criminalactivity. This is especiallytrue for sites that have tradi-tionally been vacant or aban-doned.

Programs targeting specificgroups, like scouts andschool children, encourageusers to take ownership ofthe site. Education should beincorporated into site pro-gramming to make citizensmore confident with site use. 8

MaintenanceProper maintenance of a site,especially the landscape,supports accessibility, visualaccess and defined owner-ship.

Partnerships with businessand community organizationspromote an anti-crime cul-ture and create safer outdoorenvironments. Crime watchgroups composed of commu-nity volunteer organizationsprovide help and contributeto the maintenance of thesite, reducing litter and pre-

CRIMEPREVENTION INPUBLIC SPACES

The 2010 ICA Conference (www.cpted.net)

Calgary, Canada, October 18-20

The theme of this year's conference is 21st Century CPTED - Collaboration,Partnerships, Empowerment. It will be held at the Coast Plaza ConferenceCentre, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

This 2-day conference will feature a look at the latest trends in CPTED, 2ndGeneration CPTED, SmartGrowth, terrorism, local empowerment, and otherexciting and important topics that affect you, the community leader, Police,Security Professionals, Planners, government officials and NGOs.

We are also excited and honored to have renowned author and communityleader Jim Diers presenting a session and speaking as our keynote address atthe conference dinner on "Crime Prevention Through CommunityEmpowerment"

Jim is former director of the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods. Jim spendsmost of his time at the University of Washington where he teaches courses inarchitecture and social work and supports community initiatives. He is a facultymember for the Asset-Based Community Development Institute and the authorof Neighbor Power: Building Community the Seattle Way.

Resources for CPTEDVirginia Crime Prevention As-sociation CPTED Safer By De-sign Coalitionwww.vcpa.org/CPTED.htm

Virginia Department of Gameand Inland Fisheries CrimeWatch Programwww.dgif.virginia.gov/wildcrime

Seattle, Washington Police De-partment CPTED programwww.ci.seattle.wa.us/police/prevention/Tips/ CPTED.htm

Continued from page 4

Only small sums are often allocatedfor a crime risk assessment. Thesize of the project fee willdetermine the amount of time thatcan be invested in completing theassessment tasks, which will inturn affect the quality of theanalyses.

There is likely to be implicitpressure to highlight the strengthsof the proposed developmentwithout drawing too much attentionto potential crime risks. Thepreliminary review above seems toindicate some crime riskassessment reports are slantedtoward the best interests of theclient rather than being completelyobjective.

Overstating the merits -Understating the evidence

Some caution against overstatingthe merits of CPTED. Shaftoe andRead (2005: 250) suggest that“there is much common sense in a‘designing out crime’ approach,but also a danger of overstatingits impact”. They suggest thatsome CPTED concepts (such assymbolic barriers) have not beenevaluated in any systematic way.

In other cases the literature onactual research is ignored. Thereare lengthy CPTED bibliographiesover the past 30 years thatprovide excellent results onhundreds of studies regardingCPTED principles (Cozens, Savilleand Hillier, 2005). These arerarely cited.

Despite these cautionary words, itcould be argued that there is atendency to overstate the meritsof CPTED in crime riskassessments. For example:

“CCTV is proposed to be mountedwithin the (site) which will

enhance real and perceived safetyand thereby encourage greater

use of the (site)”.

The tendency toward sweepingpositive generalisations about par-ticular features of a development,neglect the often contradictoryevidence regarding the utility ofparticular treatments.

BITING THE HAND

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

Obviously not all developers be-have this way. Nor do all crimerisk assessment reports conformto these observations. In fact,many CPTED practitioners experi-ence very positive relationshipswith developers, architects andplanners. They are engaged suffi-ciently early to help shape andmould a development to positivelyminimize crime risks.

The point is that what we need isfurther discussion of the bittenhand paradox, perhaps inorganizations such as theInternational CPTED Associationwhich was, after all, established tohelp professionalize CPTEDpractice. We need to encourageand welcome more discussion onthe bitten hand paradox.

References:

Cozens, Paul, Gregory Saville andBill Hillier. (2005). CPTED: AModern Bibliography. PropertyManagement. Vol. 23, No. 5., pp.328-356.

Shaftoe, H. And Read, T. (2005)Planning out crime: the applianceof science or an act of faith?, inTilley, N. (ed). Handbook of CrimePrevention and CommunitySafety. Devon: Willan Publishing.

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THAT FEEDS YOU

ConclusionThe developer wants smoothpassage of the developmentapplication to speed upconstruction time and begin salesor leasing. This does not bode wellfor a thorough CPTED riskassessment nor the CPTEDpractitioner.

THE FINAL STORY

For 14 years, CPTED Perspective has been the quarterly newsletter of theINTERNATIONAL CPTED ASSOCIATION. It is archived at www.cpted.net.

All ICA members are welcome to submit articles toICA, Box 13, Site 17, RR 2, Strathmore, Alberta, Canada – T1P 1K5

Phone: Int + 1- 403-668-7085 ••• Fax: Int + 1 - 403 - 278 - 4965 ••• Email: office@cpted.netEditor: Gregory Saville

Graphics and Layout Design: Michelle Saville

SUSTAINABLE LIGHT-ING IN CPTED

Randall I. AtlasAtlas Safety & SecurityDesign Ltd.

Many 1st Generation CPTEDpractitioners use lighting toimprove nighttime sightlines.But lighting can be a waste ofenergy in a time whenconservation is key. You mayhave noticed in recent years anew style of light appearing onour streets. Light Emitting Di-odes - LED - are a developingtechnology that offers signifi-cant environmental savings.In some cases they are 10 - 50times more energy efficientthan traditional light sources.

Despite the snags, this lighting tech-nology offers several new opportuni-ties to mesh CPTED principles withbetter environmental sustainability.

The Lumecon LED street light“Relume” model uses whiteLEDs to increase outdoor visi-bility and also meets new en-vironmental standards as wellas Dark Sky initiatives.

LEDtronics has released itsnew DC to DC Dimmer for LEDlighting products that makes itpossible to dim various LEDlamps, thereby extending thelife of the LED.

The new Topco Streetlight is anew solar powered luminairecomplete with automatic con-trols that turn the light on andoff as well as regulate the in-tensity of power during thevarious times of day. Thislight can operate at 100%power at night, but can con-serve energy by operating atonly 60% power during theearly morning hours.

LED bulbs produce little to noheat, which make them safersince they are cool to the touch.This is so much the case thatsome northern cities have dis-covered LEDs tendency to freezeover in winter because the lackof heat fails to melt ice fromlight fixtures.

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Sustainable lighting in CPTED

New LED technology lighitng public walkways