What is C.P.T.E.D.?

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED \sep-ted\) is a branch of situational crime prevention, which has as its basic premise that the physical environment can be changed or managed to produce behavioral effects that will reduce the incidence and fear of crime, thereby improving in the quality of life, and enhancing profitability for business. Like all situational crime prevention strategies, CPTED has as one of its primary aims to reduce the opportunity for specific crimes to occur. Where CPTED differs from traditional target hardening strategies is that the techniques employed seek to use environmental factors to affect the perceptions of all users of a given space - addressing not only the opportunity for the crime but also perceptions of fear on the part of those who may otherwise be victims. In practice, CPTED principles can be, and are, used in a wide range of contexts, from social planning through to urban design, from community safety to specific security risk management applications. Whilst the underlying principles can be traced back to ancient civilizations, the contemporary concepts of CPTED have been around for forty years or so and touch a great number professional disciplines. Yet there remains a high degree of CPTED illiteracy within the professions, frequently resulting in designs that fail to fully meet behavioral or functional objectives. The by-products of this are fear, reduced productivity, and increased opportunity for crime.

CPTED is being expanded into new areas such as computerized crime mapping, social programming, and technology innovations. By establishing a policy and regulatory framework for a physical design which can include:

All of our Officers are certified by the National Crime Prevention Institute in CEPTED.