May 10, 2024
Preventing crime through environmental design
INTERVIEW WITH CST. MATT HUNT BY KARINA SINCLAIR
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Imagine a world where the landscape design of our neighbourhoods and public spaces serve as a shield against crime. This is the essence of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), a movement that underscores the pivotal role landscape professionals, together with law enforcement, have in shaping secure and resilient environments.
The CPTED concept aims to create urban designs that draw people into public spaces to be the “eyes on the street.” When more people get outside and engage in their neighbourhoods in a positive way, it fosters a sense of community pride and can play a role in suppressing crime.
Constable Matthew Hunt, the CPTED coordinator for the Ottawa Police Service, has 24 years of policing experience and has led one of the few standalone CPTED units in Canada for the past seven years. He teaches courses on CPTED, reviews site plans on new builds and performs site audits on homes and properties that request help with crime reduction. Constable Hunt joined the Landscape Ontario Podcast to explain how CPTED principles and thoughtful landscaping choices can foster safer neighbourhoods.
Is it really possible to design out crime, and if so, what kinds of crime?
You can't design out crime completely. There's really no way to do that. But it is possible to do a few things to try to alleviate some of the crime that might be happening. If you have a good landscape plan with open sightlines, pride of ownership and a well-kept space, [that] generally breeds positive activity on the property. So there are a few things that landscapers can do to alleviate some crimes, like break and enters or vehicle theft.
What are some easy ways landscapers can help prevent crime?
Pride of ownership is a key aspect to crime prevention. Well-maintained spaces generally don't breed as much negative activity. The “three-foot, six-foot rule” is an easy win, keeping shrubs down to three feet and/or trimming up the trees to six feet to basically take away hiding places and bring about sightlines.
Transition zones are huge. Trying to differentiate between public space and private space — landscaping can do this very well with bushes that lead someone to the entryway, or the “celebrated entrance,” as I call it, rather than being able to cut across the grass. It really differentiates if you're on the other side of the hedge or the bush, that's private space and not public space. So clear transition zones are key. Fencing also is good to differentiate between the spaces.
Hostile plants. A lot of the break-ins that occur to people's residences tend to come through the back way because it's less visible. So if people are climbing your fence and accessing your property, one of the ideas that we came up with is to plant some hostile plants, like some rose bushes. They still look really nice, but they're not conducive for somebody jumping the fence and landing in them.
No tall shrubs in front of windows. We don't want windows blocked out. We don't want doors blocked out, we don't want cars hidden. We want the sightlines to be open because those are all points of access to people's residences. It’s very important to keep foliage well-maintained during the summer months, especially when they can grow a little bit out of control at times.
The other thing is community gardens for bringing people to underused spaces. We want people to come take ownership. Murals are really good for this as well, either the looking after or bringing a mural into an area which might be high graffiti.
As well, in the parks, I like lots of seating for parents to be able to watch their kids because that will discourage some of the negative activity. But sometimes these sitting areas or these picnic tables get moved into other areas of the park where people can congregate. And that's when the drug use and the alcohol abuse and all that kind of stuff happens. So we may have to anchor or secure these things to trees or to the ground so they don't move.
Lighting is also very key that it's not blocked out from foliage, that it's working well with any video surveillance in the area.
But it's all about clear sightlines and the clear transition zone so that it's very obvious to people what is public space and what is private.
This interview was adapted from an episode of the Landscape Ontario podcast, published on March 5, 2024. To hear the whole interview, visit landscapeontario.com/podcast, or search for it on your favourite podcast app.