Safety By Design Sheriff’s Deputies Study Architecture And Landscaping Techniques To Thwart Criminals

June King looks at her Millwood neighborhood through the eyes of a criminal. She scans for dark corners and overgrown bushes. She looks for yards with hiding spots. Then she pounces.

“I get on my neighbors,” the 67-year-old Block Watch captain joked. Thanks to persistence - some might call it nagging - almost every yard on her street is now lit at night. Neighbors know each other. And when an outsider wanders in, they pay attention.

“We picked up a Peeping Tom once,” said King, who views herself as just a good old-fashioned nosy neighbor.

But to Sheriff’s Deputy Greg Snyder, King is a specialist - in Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design.

CPTED, pronounced “sep-ted,” is a method of crime fighting the Sheriff’s Department hopes to expand, with the help of apartment managers, developers, county planners and others.

When used in a neighborhood, it makes it much tougher for criminals to go unnoticed. At its best, it convinces would-be thieves and prowlers to move on, and look for an easier target.

This week, Snyder and three other deputies will spend 40 hours in advanced CPTED training. When finished, they’ll train other patrol officers. They’ll use what they learn to advise the owners of existing buildings, he said, but their bigger goal is to help architects, planners and developers incorporate the CPTED principals into new construction projects.

An existing apartment complex can’t move its parking garages or rotate buildings or pull out expensive fences to make itself less favorable to criminals, said Snyder, who has worked with several Valley apartment managers. Often, he said, the owners are unwilling to pay for costly changes.

The key, he said, is to incorporate CPTED into building design. In the Valley, his priority will be apartment construction. Apartments are popping up all over the Valley and many have designs ripe for theft, said Sheriff John Goldman.

What makes an apartment complex a likely target?

A big factor, Goldman said, is size.

Several new Valley complexes look more like small cities, he said. With so many tenants, it’s impossible to know if someone is a stranger or a neighbor. With multiple entrances and exits, it’s easy to drive around without raising suspicion. And the fences and carports that provide privacy around the perimeter also hide the activities of burglars and prowlers.

Driving through the Valley, Snyder can point to homes and apartment complexes that suffer because of these design flaws. A typical example, he said, is the massive Cedar Chateau Estates on East Mission Avenue, which has more than 350 units.

Snyder patroled the complex when it first opened about four years ago.

“They were getting hit almost every night, four, five, six car prowlings. They had a number of burglaries, also,” he said.

“The sense of neighborhood and sense of ownership is low,” he said. In many parts of the apartment complex, parking areas are hidden by rows of garages, providing protection for prowlers.

“There are so many units, someone’s probably not going to know if I’m from here,” Snyder said.

While it’s best to be in a small complex, where tenants know each other and watch out for each other, large complexes can incorporate CPTED principals.

They can avoid brick or wood fences, and opt for a material that provides greater visibility. The Ridgestone Apartments, on North Union Road, is a good example. It’s surrounded by a wrought-iron fence.

Designers of apartment complexes can locate offices and club houses near entrances, so cars must drive by and be seen when they enter. If possible, Snyder said, it’s best to have just one combination entrance-exit, so it’s harder to sneak out unnoticed.

Mailboxes, Goldman said, can be dispersed throughout the complexes, which creates activity.

“Put a bench or picnic table there,” Goldman said. The more legitimate activity going on, he said, the less desirable an area is for criminals.

Owners of homes, businesses and other buildings can reduce risk by keeping lights on at night, and trimming hedges, trees and bushes that hide their building from passersby.

Snyder recently worked with a homeowner from a low-crime neighborhood who couldn’t understand why he had been burglarized twice in several weeks. The Valley home, Snyder said, was the only one in the neighborhood hidden from the road by thick trees and a hedge. The homeowner has since started digging and trimming.

Snyder admits his advice often goes unheeded. Once the sting of a burglary subsides, home and business owners often refuse to give up their bushes or their privacy.

Snyder isn’t unsympathetic.

“I have privacy fencing,” he admitted, “but I also have a big dog. They’re personal choices.”

In the past, he said, many business and home owners fought crime by locking themselves in with tall fences and barred windows. The CPTED approach is completely opposite.

“We want to build community,” Snyder said. “We don’t want people to fortify themselves.”

June King has tried both methods, and prefers the community approach.

“I have an eight-foot fence in my back yard,” she said. It hasn’t stopped thieves from hopping it and stealing her firewood and her husband’s tools.

Bright sensor lights and close neighbors, she said, offer the best protection.

Her neighbors, it appears, agree. They recently honored King by placing a large banner on her house:

“Roses are red. Violets are blue. Who needs a cop, when we’ve got you?”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos (1 color)

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: ON GUARD Homeowners can improve their home security by following these suggestions from the Spokane County Sheriff’s Department: Trim trees and shrubbery, especially around doors and windows. Choose fences that allow visibility in and out of your yard. Keep all sides of your house lit at night, even if you’re home. Install motion sensor lighting. Install deadbolt locks. Get to know your neighbors. Take turns collecting newspapers and mail, shoveling snow, etc., when someone is out of town. Be observant. If you see something suspicious, tell your neighbors or the police about it. For an in-home security evaluation, call the Sheriff’s Department’s Crime Prevention Unit at 458-2592.