Designs Against Crime Specially Trained Police Officers Are Helping Plan Subdivisions With An Eye To Crime Prevention

Studying the Summerhill subdivision development plans, Rick Albin eagerly offers his ideas on the design.

He suggests wrought iron fences in the back yards, a park with play equipment and benches and much wider streets.

Albin isn’t a builder, developer or urban planner. He’s a Spokane police officer.

His suggestions are based on techniques he learned last spring in a Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design course.

As information about CPTED (pronounced “sep-ted”) spreads, Albin is being called on more often to offer recommendations for new housing developments, parks and neighborhoods.

“It’s remarkable how quickly this has taken off. Six months ago, we weren’t doing any of this,” said Albin.

Spokane Police Officer Dan Bunn, Spokane County Sheriff John Goldman, and Sheriff’s Deputy Greg Snyder went through the 40 hours of training in Seattle along with Albin.

“By using some of these principles, we can begin to eliminate vast numbers of calls for service,” said Goldman. “We can free up a lot of resources to devote to more serious crime. Ultimately, we can save money and make the area safer.”

The Five Mile Prairie neighborhood council recently asked for CPTED recommendations on two large subdivisions planned in their community, including Summerhill in the city and Willow Run, a manufactured housing park in the county.

“A law enforcement officer can look at a design and predict crime opportunities,” said Candace Dahlstrom, a Five Mile Prairie resident and a member of the neighborhood council crime committee.

“We hope developers will see the sense in this for the good of the community,” she said. “I think this would be a wonderful marketing opportunity for developments.”

Spokane city and county planners are just starting to consider crime prevention aspects when reviewing new projects.

Snyder, of the sheriff’s department, reviewed plans for Willow Run, the 238-unit manufactured home park proposed on Five Mile Prairie. He predicted dramatically increased traffic, a lack of places for people to walk and streets that are too narrow.

Snyder said that with so many cars passing through, it would be difficult for neighbors to determine who belonged in the area.

He suggested several entries to the housing area, instead of one main entrance off Five Mile Road, to create more of a community feeling.

“Here is a sheriff’s deputy, trained in traffic problems. It is interesting to have his perspective on the roads. They are the ones who have to deal with it. Their voice should be heard,” said Dahlstrom.

Developer Greg Yost said he’s agreed to work with Snyder to incorporate some of his ideas in Willow Run.

“I want to have a nice, safe environment in my development,” Yost said.

“I think it’s a good program,” he said. “I’m happy to do what I can to foster a safe environment.”

John Pederson, senior planner for the county, said CPTED ideas are recommendations at this point.

But in the city, managers are looking seriously at CPTED as a crime prevention and planning tool.

“It worked out very, very well for us,” said Parks and Recreation Director Ange Taylor. “In addition, it brought the parks and recreation department and police department closer together in a cooperative venture.”

City Planning Director Charlie Dotson has signed up two planners from his department to attend a 40-hour CPTED course that will be offered by nationally-known crime prevention expert Timothy Crowe in Spokane next month.

Crowe says attention to architecture and space management can reduce crime in neighborhoods, parks, schools, shopping centers and apartment complexes.

“The key is to make people more responsible for larger areas of their community,” said Albin.

That means bringing “legitimate” people out of their houses and cloistered back yards, and into front yards, onto porches and sidewalks.

“Burglars don’t have a chance in neighborhoods where families watch each other’s houses, know everyone on the block and look out windows,” said Albin.

Already, the city parks department has incorporated some of the ideas to make Hillyard swimming pool on the North Side and Underhill and Liberty parks on the South Side safer.

Parking garages, such as the one at NorthTown Mall, would look dramatically different if CPTED ideas had been used in its design. It would be more open, lighter, and with fewer nooks and crannies for hiding.

On the South Side, Albin and city officer Dan Bunn studied Underhill Park, which has been plagued by drug dealers, hoodlums and vagrants.

The CPTED team, working with the neighborhood and city parks department, recommended trimming trees and removing bushes so neighbors had a clearer view of the park. They removed a picnic table that had become a drug dealer’s office. The bench was placed near the swings and play area to encourage families to use the park.

Washington Water Power installed more lights.

“Anything that makes us - legitimate people - feel comfortable, makes the criminal feel uncomfortable,” says Albin.

In the past, residents have tried to protect their homes by adding alarms, barring their windows and doors, gating their neighborhoods, and building high, solid fences around their yards.

“Who is the prisoner in those houses?” asked Sandy Richards, a crime prevention specialist for the city.

Those safety measures don’t work.

According to CPTED experts, burglars are scared off by neighborhood activity, front doors and back yards that everyone can see, tidy yards and well-lit areas.

One convenience store, evaluated with the CPTED method, started playing classical music and troublemakers left.

Perception is everything.

Wide-open Wall Street downtown “feels” like the safest place in the city because of its openness, and all the businesses have doors and windows with views of the street, said Richards. “People feel vulnerable when they walk past a vacant store front.

“It’s a very gentle way of doing crime prevention,” she said.

In neighborhoods, she advocates front porches and a clear view of front doors. She suggests a four-foot hedge of Oregon grape or barberry instead of fencing to discourage burglars, but still offer a view.

“We have wonderful neighborhoods now. We need to keep them that way,” Richards said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 color photos