Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design

PURPOSE

The Conference of Mayors is assisting mayors in using environmental design to prevent crime. Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) is based on the principle that the proper use and design of the built and physical environment can lead to an improvement in the quality of life and a reduction in the incidence and fear of crime. CPTED has been used in cities to deter crime through physical changes in the environment -- better lighting, more careful planning of parking lots and convenience stores -- as well as through programming, such as making areas more attractive to people and thus deterring crime. The Conference of Mayors has identified successful case examples of CPTED use and is producing a manual to describe them for all mayors.

ACTIVITIES AND DELIVERABLE PROJECTS

  1. Formation of a consortium of national organizations to disseminate information on CPTED principles and encourage use of the concept.
  2. Information gathering and a survey, culminating in a resource manual for mayors describing successful efforts by cities to use environmental design to prevent crime. The resource manual will be published in the summer, 1996, and all mayors will receive a copy.
  3. A workshop on Security by Design at the Annual Conference of Mayors and at annual meetings of consortium members.
  4. A national meeting, held in Miami before the Conference of Mayors' Annual Meeting, June 15-16, 1995, during which mayors who have used CPTED strategies and other national CPTED specialists highlighted issues related to Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design and encouraged practical use of the concept in cities.
Staff Contacts:
Kathy Amoroso

Home Search kamoroso@usmayors.org

The United States Conference of Mayors

J. Thomas Cochran, Executive Director
1620 Eye Street, NW, Washington, DC 20006
Telephone (202) 293-7330, FAX (202) 293-2352

Copyright © 1996, US Conference of Mayors, All rights reserved.