Chris Tomlinson

Arup Resilience, Security and Risk

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design - CPTED An Urban Linear Park Example

My Agenda

Background to CPTED - Design and how it affects crime and fear-of-crime

- Is it risk appropriate

- Arup’s view of CPTED treatment

- CPTED’s ethos

An Example – a liner public park - New York’s High Line and comparing it with the proposed

Garden Bridge over the Thames

Some Final Thoughts.

Design Influencing Crime and Nuisance

“The first thing to understand is that the public peace – the

sidewalk and the street peace – of cities is not kept primarily

by the police, necessary as police are. It is kept primarily by

an intricate, almost unconscious , network of voluntary

controls and standards among the people themselves, and

enforced by the people themselves”. Jane Jacobs 1961

“The proper design and effective use of the built environment

that can lead to a reduction in the fear and incidence of crime

and an improvement in the quality of life. The goal of CPTED

is to reduce opportunities for crime that may be inherent in

the design of structures or in the design of neighbourhoods”. Tim Crowe 2001

CPTED’s Ethos

It is based on a simple idea i.e. that crime results partly from the opportunities presented by a physical environment – as well as tempting targets and a lack of capable guardianship.

It is the design or re-design of an environment to reduce crime opportunity and fear of crime through layout, structural and physical means.

It is best applied with a multi-disciplinary approach i.e. engaging planners, designers, architects, landscapers, law-enforcement and (ideally) residents/space users

It must be risk-appropriate and tuned to the milieu of the space and its users/activities – not fortifying built environments.

Think Offender & Nuisance Context

CPTED Principles – Arup’s View

Territoriality

Natural Surveillance

Access Control

Target Hardening

Image Maintenance

Activity Support

The High Line as a CPTED Challenge

New York’s High Line is a 1.6 km

linear city park built on a 2.33 km

stretch of former elevated railway

Territoriality

Permissive but space-defined and the boundaries are clear (unconscious rule-setting)

Natural Surveillance

See and be seen – a key fear of crime

mitigation

Access Control

Using the park’s design to add in

controls where needed – in this case

pre-existing access points to the

elevated railway route.

Target Hardening

Hardening the streetscape, potential

conflict zones modified and

increasing technical security density

(e.g. CCTV) where needed

Image Maintenance

Selecting materials, furniture, planting

schemes and other space treatments that

resist nuisance and crime (e.g. easily cleaned

and searched)

Activity Support

Encouraging legitimate linger

opportunities creating ambience

that unsettles criminals and

nuisance – it will support

natural surveillance by

increasing ‘eyes on the street’

Crime Prevention on the High Line The NYPD, the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation

and the founders of the High Line all say there have been no reports of a major crime — assault, theft, robbery, etc — since the park’s opening.

The High Line uses a combination of passive and active, design and deterrence - “essentially a chute with a handful of entries, all closely watched”

Rule setting and enforcement – no alcohol/drugs, vagrancy, dogs and bikes

It is strenuously policed. NY Parks Enforcement Patrol officers walk the High Line all day – presence and enforcement patrolling

Access points are locked up at 11 pm in the summer, perhaps the greatest preventer of crime.

15

CPTED Effectiveness on the High Line

The park’s designers turned to the late, great Jane Jacobs

for guidance on crime prevention, adopting her “eyes on the

streets” theory, in which windows facing the street bring a

feeling of security

“Empty parks are dangerous,” said one of the founders of

Friends of the High Line. “Busy parks are much less so.

You’re virtually never alone on the High Line”

Friends of the High Line are intimately involved with the

space. Will the Garden Bridge’s Trust members be so

engaged?

NYPD officers patrol the High Line sporadically. Most of it

falls in the 10th Precinct and they feel closely associated with

the space.

The Garden Bridge

Temple Station Touchdown South Bank Touchdown

The Garden (Looking North)

Final Thoughts Implementing what we already know about CPTED and

ensuring its early integration in built space design has benefits as it will mitigate threats, whilst producing less ‘fortified’ places – but do it early in design

Given that policing in the UK will come under more and more financial pressure; it makes sense to design out crime and nuisance opportunities to help reduce the policing burden

Losing a place to real or perceived crime threats is hard to correct and will be expensive; doing the best to design space to reduce fear keeps places animated and used

People tend to overlook the ‘Carbon Cost of Crime’; so promoting strategies that bear down on the CO2 associated with crime and nuisance has to be a sustainability-enabler.

chris.tomlinson@arup.com

Any Questions?