Making Places Safe for People and Property

Crime needs a place to happen. Making Places Safe and crime prevention should focus on the where question. * It is far easier to develop a security plan for a single place than to figure out answers to innumerable questions about who, what, when, how, and why a crime might occur. * An rising trend in criminal activity may require some level of intention and action to address the contributing risk factors. Show Notes — 004 Some places are inherently safe. Without any thought, action, or intention required to make them that way. This does not mean that these places are 100% guaranteed safe. Yet, most would agree that its reasonably safe. These fortunate places usually have several things in common: * Historically safe geographic area & neighborhood. * Nature of the premises is low-risk (e.g. single family home versus 24-hour store). * Daily activity & visitor traffic is low-risk. * The occupants or users of the place keep it reasonably safe. Some places can be made reasonably safe by using basic security methods or compliance with regulations: * For example, minimum standards set forth by building codes, city planning, or business licensing. * Private places can limit or restrict access, enforce rules, and use counter-measures like video surveillance, alarm systems and warning signs. * Shopping center common area lighting and landscaping can meet minimum city planning CPTED standards. * Residential structures can meet minimum building code standards with adequate door and window security features & fire safety devices. * Nightclubs can meet minimum standards by complying with fire marshal building capacity, permitted use regulations, licensing & permits, alcohol service training. Making Places Safe for People and Property What happens if circumstances change and compliance with minimum standards no longer provide adequate security? * A good place to start is to make a new crime risk assessment as a basis for modifying the original security plan. * A reasonable security plan addresses the specific circumstances of the property necessary for reducing the crime risk. * No security plan is perfect, but a clearly defined plan shows a positve response to making places safe. * The security plan must be property-based. * Every place is different when you consider location, design, size, layout, intended use, traffic, demographics, and activity. * Corporate-wide security plan may not be adequate to address factors identified in the local crime risk assessment. * A security plan must be clearly defined and articulated for making places safe. * It should leverage facility design, and use of hardware, equipment, personnel, and procedures to the extent necessary to make the property reasonably safe. * A security plan does not have to address a temporary activity center that elevates the crime risk if it can be eliminated as a component of the property. * A security plan should be dynamic enough to assign differing levels of priority for protection of people or property by variables in day-of-week and time-of-day. Making places safe for people and property are core objectives at Crime SchoolTweet This Who is responsible for making places safe? It’s a question of who has the duty, control,