Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) for Municipal Recreation Facilities

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Our recreation centres are places that our communities, visitors and prospective residents visit and partake in: sports, leisure and wellness activities, social events, cultural festivals, plus many other municipal brand showcasing programs. These programs reach every age group and demographic and are an essential element in creating positive impressions of both the venue and the municipality.

Regrettably, recreation centres are also places that attract unwanted behaviours, namely because legitimate program users can be victimized as there is often opportunity for crime and other illicit acts.  

One of the most common victimizations comes from the act of theft. At recreation centres there is frequently theft of personal property from lockers, gym bags, vehicles, lobby’s and waiting areas. So instead of installing and relying solely on high capital integrated security systems and deploying a security labour force, a reasonable mitigation measure is to employ proven CPTED practices.

CPTED has been successful in combatting incidents of trespassing, drug and alcohol activity, predatory behaviour, violence and harassment and robbery.

CPTED is a multi-disciplinary approach to deterring loss event behaviour and combatting organizational loss through environmental design and other mitigation strategies.

The practices of CPTED have evolved from its inception in the late 1960’s and early 70’s and include the principles of: natural surveillance, territorial reinforcement, access control and active maintenance.  To best deploy CPTED disciplines that are effective and cost justified, the strategy should be supported by policy, procedure and staff training.

CPTED is a powerful tool that empowers community users to take pride and ownership in their recreation centres and draws unwanted attention to people who don’t want to be noticed.

Write Right Risk will be continuing our muniSERV education series with a free half hour lunch and learn webinar about CPTED in Recreation Centres on Thursday February 25th at 12 noon.

To find out more information about the webinar or to register, please contact us at [email protected]

Patrick Ogilvie is the owner of Write Right Risk Inc. He is a Certified Protection Professional (CPP), Physical Security Professional (PSP) and a CPTED Level 2 auditor and trainer.

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