CPTED Applications for Schools*
Lawrence J. Fennelly, CPO, CSS, HLS-III Security expert witness and consultant, Litigation Consultants Inc.
Abstract
CPTED strategies have emerged from history and from contemporary crime-prevention experiments. Most of the strategies are self-evident. That is, in reading this chapter, the reader will probably think, “I knew that!” The strategies and examples contained in this chapter focus on crime prevention in a particularly important environment: schools.
The proper design on effective use of the built environment can lead to a reduction in the fear and incidence of crime, and to an improvement in the quality of life.
Dr. C. Ray Jeffery
Introduction
There are many examples of CPTED applications. Those that follow are intended to stimulate readers to think of adaptations to their own environmental setting. Each situation is unique, requiring its own individual application of CPTED concepts. No two environmental settings are exactly the same, even though they serve the same function. Accordingly, the reader must use the strategies that make the most sense within each different location. Paul van Soomeren1 notes that there are many crime-prevention concepts and theories which would aid the practitioner in reducing the fear of crime:
In Europe…CPTED-like crime-prevention approaches are also known as the situational approach, designing-out crime (DOC), or to stress the more social and organizational aspects of the approach, the reduction of crime by city maintenance, urban planning and architectural design or the Situational Crime Reduction in Partnership Theory, also known as SCRIPT (van Soomeren, 2001).
Situational Approaches
I (Fennelly) remember, several years ago, when one of my institution’s dormitories was experiencing a high frequency of cash and small items being stolen from unlocked rooms. We addressed the problem in two ways:
1. First, we took one of our old police cruisers that was no longer in use and parked it right in front of the building. The midnight-to-8 a.m. watch commander was in charge of moving it up and down the roadway so it appeared to be an active vehicle.
2. Second, we did an educational program to get students to lock their dorm rooms.
The thefts stopped and the fear of crime was reduced among the student body. Consider taking positive actions such as the ones from the above example to help alleviate a negative problem.
Objectives for School Environments
1. Access controls. Provide secure barriers to prevent unauthorized access to buildings, grounds, or restricted interior areas.
2. Surveillance through physical design. Improve opportunities for surveillance by physical design mechanisms that increase the risk of detection for offenders, enable evasive actions by potential victims, and facilitate intervention by police.
3. Mechanical surveillance devices. Provide businesses with security devices to detect and signal illegal entry attempts.
4. Design and construction. Design, build, or repair buildings and building sites to enhance security and improve quality.
5. Land use. Establish policies to prevent ill-advised land and building uses that have a negative impact.
6. Owner and management action. Encourage owners and managers to implement safeguards to make businesses and commercial properties less vulnerable to crime.
7. User protection. Implement safeguards to make shoppers less vulnerable to crime.
8. Social interaction. Encourage interaction among business people, users, and residents of commercial neighborhoods to foster social cohesion and control.
9. Private security services. Determine necessary and appropriate services to enhance commercial security.
10. Police services. Improve services to efficiently and effectively respond to crime problems and enhance citizen cooperation in reporting crime.
11. Police and community relations. Improve police and community relations to involve citizens in cooperative efforts with police to prevent and report crime.
12. Community awareness. Create community crime-prevention awareness to aid in combating crime in commercial areas.
13. Territorial awareness. Differentiate private areas from public spaces to discourage trespass by potential offenders.
14. Neighborhood image. Develop a positive image of the commercial area to encourage user and investor confidence and increase the economic vitality of the area.
Crime Environments
Most places have no crime and most crime is highly concentrated and in a relatively small number of places. If we can prevent crime at these high crime places, then we might be able to reduce total crime.2 What follows are descriptions of several high-crime environments, their problems, and the appropriate CPTED strategies and design directives.
Crime Environment: Parking Lots
Crimes that commonly occur in parking lots include:
• Theft;
• Breaking and entering; and
• Vandalism.
Crime environment problem
• Location and design of student parking near bus-loading areas without restricting borders promotes unmanaged pedestrian use of parking areas, promotes preemption of space by groups, and prohibits natural surveillance. Assaults, breaking and entering, thefts and vandalism occur (one half of vandalism are incidents with breaking and entering procedures).
• Design and location of parking lots provide unclear definition of transitional zones and unmanaged access by vehicles and pedestrians and students and nonstudents. Breaking and entering, thefts, vandalism and trespassing occur.
• Location of informal gathering areas designated as smoking zones in open corridors adjacent to parking lots and visible from public thoroughfares prohibits natural surveillance, attracts outsiders, and is an impediment to school policies restricting student use of parking lots during school hours. Breaking and entering, thefts, and vandalism occur.
• Isolation of student parking lots (some locations) prohibits any natural surveillance. Variable student hours limit use of fencing and gates. Breaking and entering, thefts, and vandalism occur.
CPTED strategies
• Relocate and/or redesign bus-loading and parking lot access procedures to reduce the necessity of pedestrian use of the lot, reduce congestion in transition zones, and support strict definition of parking lot use.
• Provide natural border definition and limit access to vehicular traffic in student parking and clearly define transitional zones to reroute ingress and egress during specific periods and to provide natural surveillance.
• Relocate informal gathering areas to places with natural surveillance that are isolated from the view of public thoroughfares and designed to support informal gathering activities.
• Relocate student parking (or part of) to areas with natural surveillance and/or locate safe activities in juxtaposition with student parking to increase natural surveillance.
• Redesign parking lots to provide levels of security consistent with variable access needs of the students.
• Remove graffiti within 24 hours and repair vandalism also within 24 hours.
CPTED design directives
• Switch locations between student parking and driver education range.
• Designate access ways to the student parking lot that avoid the bus-loading zone.
• Install hedges around parking lots less than 3′ high.
• Install aesthetically pleasing gates on vehicular access points.
• Set policies to limit student pedestrian use of the parking lots.
• Organize a student/faculty committee to assist in the design and coordination of the border definition and parking lot access control activities.
• Organize a student/faculty committee to assist in the design and coordination of the mini-plaza activities.
• Switch locations between student parking and the driver education range.
Crime Environment: School Grounds
Crimes that commonly occur on school grounds include:
• Breaking and entering of motor vehicles as well as the building;
• Bicycle theft;
• Vandalism;
• Buying of drugs; and
• Bullying/harassment/fighting.
Crime environment problem
• Design of and procedures for bus-loading areas prohibit teacher surveillance, increase supervision ratio, impede pedestrian traffic flow, and cause congestion. Confrontations, thefts, and vandalism occur.
• Location of informal gathering areas (natural and designated) promotes the preemption of space, interferes with traffic flow, and prohibits natural surveillance. Assaults occur.
• Design, use, and location of bicycle compounds or parking areas on school grounds prohibit natural surveillance and limit proper use because of students with variable hours. Thefts of bicycles occur.
• Design, use, and location of facilities have created opportunity for breaking and entering, theft, and vandalism to occur. (One half of vandalisms are incidents with breaking and entering.)
CPTED strategies
• Redesign bus-loading zone and service procedures to increase surveillance area for natural surveillance, control pedestrian flow, and decrease the ratio of students to supervisors.
• Remove vandalism within 24 hours.
• Relocate informal gathering areas near supervision or natural surveillance.
• Redesign informal gathering areas to promote orderly flow and breakup the preemption of space by groups.
• Provide functional activities in unused or misused problem areas to promote natural surveillance, increase safe traffic flow, and attract different types of users.
• Provide clear border definition of transitional zones for access control and surveillance.
• Notify the police if drugs are sold on school grounds.
• Provide functional community activities on school campus (off hours) to increase surveillance through effective use of facilities.
• Overcome distance and isolation by improving communications to create rapid response to problems (and its perception) and more effective surveillance.
• Redesign bicycle parking areas to provide levels of security consistent with variable access needs of students.
CPTED design directives
• Create one zone in the surveillance area for loading and unloading students, limited in size to a maximum of 4-5 buses.
• Require bus drivers to allow students to enter or leave their bus only when in a specified loading zone.
• Create a bus queuing zone for waiting buses that is convenient to the loading zone.
• Require teachers on monitoring assignment at the bus-loading zone to direct the movement of buses and to disperse each group of students from the bus-loading area before allowing another group to load and unload.
• Move benches and physical amenities that support informal gatherings from undefined areas to courtyards.
• Relocate the student smoking zone to the interior courtyards.
• Remove conventional picnic tables and benches.
• Install new tables and benches that physically divide the space and size of groups.
• Position amenities to create multiple access and passageways.
• Place ticket booths in problem areas.
• Create mini-plazas in courtyards.
• Organize a student/faculty committee to assist in the design and coordination of mini-plaza activities.
• Install low hedging no higher than 3′ with flowerbeds or ornamental fencing along borders.
• Organize a student/faculty committee to assist in the design and coordination of border definition activities.
• Create a police “school precinct” office.
• Install audio horns for burglar alarm system. Provide portable radios to deans, school resource persons, custodians, and security or law enforcement.
• Create a fenced bicycle cage parking area (secure area).
• Create an open bicycle parking area located in a place with good natural surveillance (nonsecure area).
• Assign students to either a secure or nonsecure bicycle parking area based on their schedules.
• Install ground-level locking devices in each bicycle parking area.
• Set a policy requiring students to utilize a bicycle locking cable or chain.
Crime Environment: Corridors
Crimes that commonly occur in corridors include:
• Threats; and
• Extortion.
Crime environment problem
• Design and use of corridors provide blind spots and isolated areas that prohibit natural surveillance. Assaults, threats, and extortions occur.
• Class scheduling promotes congestion in certain areas at shift changing that decreases supervision capabilities and produces inconvenience. Assaults and confrontations occur.
• Location of benches and/or other amenities in corridors creates misused space and congestion. Corridor locations are lacking in natural surveillance because of design. Assaults and confrontations occur.
• Location and use of corridors for functions other than pedestrian passage such as smoking zones promote preemption of space by groups and unsurveillable misused space. This misused space supports behavior that attracts outsiders to the external corridors designated as smoking areas. Assaults, confrontations, and other illegal activities occur.
• Design and definition of corridor areas do not support a clear definition of the dominant function of that space (i.e., passage). Unclear transitional zones produce behaviors conducive to assault and confrontation.
CPTED strategies
• Provide functional activities (or re-designate use) in blind spots or isolated areas to increase natural surveillance (or the perception thereof).
• Remove obstacles to natural surveillance (increase perception of openness).
• Revise class scheduling and management procedures to avoid congestion, to decrease supervision ratio, and to define time transitions.
• Relocate informal gathering areas to areas with natural surveillance that are designed to support the particular activity.
• Relocate activities and functions from misused space to areas designed in support of these activities and to provide natural surveillance.
• Provide clear definition of the dominant function (and the intended use of space) and clearly define transitional zones to increase territorial concerns and natural surveillance.
CPTED design directives
• Relocate teacher planning areas.
• Redesign blind spot areas to provide storage spaces for clubs and/or the school administration.
• Install windows in walls along problem corridors.
• Install windows in walls of exterior stairwells.
• Provide a 3-5 minute shift change hiatus between lunch periods.
• Remove benches and other physical amenities from crowded corridors that are over 3′ tall.
• Provide healthy cafeteria food at the gymnasium snack bar.
• Provide multiple access to the snack bar and install queuing lanes.
• Place graphic designs in stairwells and corridors defining the intended function of these spaces.
• Color code various sections of the school and use graphics and art designs uniquely for each functional component of the school.
Crime Environment: Classrooms
Crimes that commonly occur in classrooms include:
• Theft.
Crime environment problem
• Design requirements for classrooms produce isolation of individual classes, resulting in high student-to-teacher ratios and little external natural surveillance (real or perceived) when class is in session. Assaults occur. Theft occurs when class is empty.
• Location and design definition of multiple-purpose classrooms produce unclear transitional zones, decreases territorial concern, and decreases natural surveillance. Thefts occur.
CPTED strategies
• Remove obstacles to natural surveillance to increase risk of detection and to reduce perception of isolation.
• Overcome distance and isolation by improving communications to create rapid responses to problems, the perception of rapid response, and more effective surveillance.
• Extend the identity of surrounding spaces to multiple purpose space to increase territorial concern and natural surveillance.
• Provide functional activity in problem areas to increase territorial concern and natural surveillance.
CPTED design directives
• Install windows in classroom walls and doors.
• Provide portable radios to deans, school resource persons, and custodial personnel.
• Install alarm systems in problem classrooms for after hours.
• Color code and graphically identify multiple-purpose classrooms with adjacent spaces.
• Relocate a teacher planning area to each multi-purpose classroom.
Crime Environment: Restrooms
Crimes that commonly occur in restrooms include:
• Extortion.
Crime environment problem
• Location of restrooms near external entrances and exits isolates them from normal school-hour traffic flow and prohibits surveillance. Assaults occur.
• Privacy and isolation required for internal design provides blind spots that reduce surveillability on the part of students and supervisory personnel (i.e., exterior door and anteroom wall). Assaults occur.
CPTED strategies
• Limit access to isolated areas during specific times for access control and to reduce the need for surveillance.
• Remove obstacles to natural surveillance to decrease fear, increase use, and increase risk of detection.
CPTED design directives
• Organize student/faculty committees by functional component to select and coordinate the graphic design and color coding activities.
• Install collapsible gates at restroom entrances for locking during problem periods.
• Remove entrance doors to restrooms.
• Eliminate unnecessary portions of anteroom walls.
Crime Environment: Locker Rooms
Crimes that commonly occur in locker rooms include:
• Breaking and entering; and
• Fights/assaults.
Crime environment problem
• Design and use of lockers (by multiple assignment) disperses students throughout the area, reduces surveillance, and increases territory for teacher supervision. Breaking and entering and thefts occur.
• Similar design of lockers creates confusion and decreases natural surveillance by creating unclear definition of transitional zones. Breaking and entering and theft occur.
• Isolation of locker area while class is in gymnasium or on playing field eliminates natural surveillance. Breaking and entering and thefts occur.
CPTED strategies
• Redesignate use of space to increase territorial concern, to increase the defined purpose of space, and to reduce area requiring surveillance.
• Provide clear definition of transitional zones and use of space for easy recognition of bona fide users.
• Provide functional activities in problem areas to increase natural surveillance.
CPTED design directives
• Assign lockers by section, separately for each class.
• Color code locker sections uniquely for each class.
• Relocate a teacher planning area to the physical education offices.
• Assign teachers to the planning area during all classes.
Conclusion
This chapter discusses CPTED strategies and design directives for combating crime in schools. Your objective is always to reduce opportunity for a crime to occur or make it harder for a crime to occur. This is done through risk assessment studies, communication, awareness, target hardening, putting controls in place, access control, surveillance, and proper management of the complex.
Below is a list of four proven tactics for the prevention of crime in schools:
1. Support school staff in their efforts to keep guns, knives, and other weapons out of schools.
2. Encourage students to report any weapons they know about on school property to school authorities or to the police.
3. Involve students in issues. Young people can and do organize events against weapons and violence.
4. Show and teach students how to settle arguments without resorting to violence.