Policy Text
TRAINING BULLETIN
Evaluation Coordinator: Commander
Automatic Revision Cycle: Years
partment Training Bulletins shall be used to advise members of current police techniques and
procedures and shall constitute official policy.” Index Number: VIII-O
Alpha Index: Crime Prevention Through
Environmental Design Date of Issue / Revision
15 Dec 00
“De
Crime Prevention through Environmental Design
Introduction
Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) uses landscape and building design,
space management, and scheduled activities to redu ce the opportunities for crime and to increase
the opportunities for positive social interaction.
CPTED can be applied to interior and exterior spaces and is particularly important in public
places.
The City of Oakland's CPTED Task Team has ad opted the National Crime Prevention Institute's
definition of the CPTED concept:
The proper design and effective use of the bu ilt environment can lead to a reduction in the
incidence and fear of crime and to an improvement in the quality of life.
CPTED differs from traditional crime prevention stra tegies in that it uses normal design elements
and space allocation in a manner that is both aesthe tically pleasing and supportive of public safety.
These strategies are often referred to as "nat ural" surveillance and "natural" access control as
opposed to surveillance by cameras or access control by locks and bars.
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Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, Index Number VIII-O
Benefits of CPTED Implementation
Benefits of CPTED implementation include those listed below:
• Reduction of criminal incident s and their associated costs
• Reduction of social disorder, allowing for a return of civil behavior
• Enhancement of physical, social, and economic conditions that improve the quality of life and
encourage social and economic investment
• Reduction in visual security blight
• Establishment of a stronger community and city partnership
CPTED Principles
The City of Oakland's CPTED Task Team has identified six major principles of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design.
These six principles have overlapping strategies and are most powerful when used in combination with the associated strategies of ta rget hardening and organized security.
1. Natural Surveillance
Natural surveillance is the design and placem ent of physical features in order to
maximize a location's visibility.
The placement of windows, deck s, patios, porches, counters, and doors; the lighting of
exits, walkways, and other public spaces; and the scheduling of pers ons and activities to
enhance opportunities for casual surveillance are all examples of using "natural" methods
to enhance a location's visibility.
2. Natural Access Control
Natural access control provides physical guid ance for people coming in and going from a
space.
The judicious placement of signs, entrances, exits, fences, landscaping, and lighting are
natural methods for guiding people into and out of a space.
Symbolic barriers, which can be easily crossed, such as decorative fencing or changes in
surface treatment, landscape, or lighting, can also be used as methods of natural access
control.
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15 Dec 00 ● Oakland Police Department
3. Territorial Reinforcement
As its name implies, territorial reinforcem ent heightens the identity of space ownership
and reduces the amount of space which has no clearly defined purpose.
Using signs, landscaping, fencing, or pavement treatments, for example, territorial
reinforcement clearly delineates space as private, semi-private, or public.
Territorial reinforcement designates the use of and responsibility for all spaces.
4. Physical Maintenance
Physical maintenance-or the repair, replacement, and general upkeep of a space – serves as an additional expression of ownership and identifies a space as being in continued use.
Community clean-up programs and timely repair and replacement of vandalized, worn, or
damaged features are examples of physical maintenance.
5. Order Maintenance
Order maintenance is the prompt identificatio n of and attention to acts associated with
disorderly behavior.
Order maintenance involves the classification, collection, and analysis of calls for service
for such acts as littering; vandalism; loitering; panhandling; prostitution; noise; the public
consumption of alcohol; and juvenile, traffic, and parking violations.
6. Activity Support
Activity support is the planni ng and placement of activities to enhance casual natural
surveillance, access control, and territorial reinforcement. Thes e activities may include
the following:
• Programs to encourage public employees, bus inesses, and area residents to provide
natural surveillance of key areas during the normal course of their regular daily
activities.
• Designation of outdoor areas of businesses for smokers in order for them to see or
control areas difficult to keep under natural surveillance.
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Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, Index Number VIII-O
CPTED Associated Strategies
The associated strategies listed below can be used in conjunction with CPTED strategies.
1. Target Hardening
Target hardening is reinforcing the protection of people and property through the proper use of effective crime deterrents such as access controls, alarm systems, surveillance
cameras, lighting, and appropriate barriers.
2. Organized Security
Organized security includes the use of sworn public-safety agency personnel to deter illegal acts and social disorder and, if necessa ry, the use of private security services to
protect private property.
Additional Information about CPTED
Officers may contact the following members an d employees for additional information about
CPTED: Sgt. Richard Andreotti Crime Prevention Division
Lt. Eric Breshears Special Operations Division
Angela Davis-Lincoln Neighborhood Services Coordinator
Willie Huey Neighborhood Services Coordinator
Al Lozano PST 11, Community Services
Araina Richards Neighborhood Services Coordinator
Sandra Sanders-West Neighborhood Services Coordinator
Renee Sykes Neighborhood Services Coordinator