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Urban crime and violence: Policy responses97There are two points that need to be made about thesepolicy responses. First, they are not watertight compartmentsbut involve considerable areas of overlap. A simpleillustration of this is the fact that a programme targetingyoung men because this group commits a high proportion ofcrime will often seek to deflect their activities in moreacceptable directions, including investing in strengtheningsocial capital in areas such as education, sport and recreation,and cultural activities. Second, it is not necessarily aquestion of choosing between these approaches because it ispossible to combine elements of several or all of them.Indeed, available evidence suggests that a carefully managedprogramme that combines several elements of theseapproaches in ways that recognize the connections betweenthem and their appropriateness to the local context has abetter chance of success than merely focusing on a singleelement. This is because deeply-embedded problems ofcrime and violence are rarely amenable to simple, onedimensionalsolutions. Programmes of this nature are oftengenerated and promoted through partnerships of variouskinds.Enhancing urban safety and security througheffective urban planning, design andgovernanceThe process of enhancing urban safety and security througheffective urban planning, design and governance is still in itsinfancy in many parts of the world, although in somecountries such as the UK, the US and Canada it is moreadvanced. The attempts of the UK government to get theplanning system to regard crime prevention as one of itsmajor objectives in the drive to secure sustainable developmenthave already been referred to earlier. But such a‘top-down’ process would be of little value by itself unless itis accompanied by effective action at the local level. TheBradford case study prepared for this Global Report 49explores this area (see Box 4.6). It is clear from this case thatkey issues here include the following:• An important role for the police service based upon itsexperience in handling crime is providing advice to thekey players in the development process about how theopportunity to commit crimes can be reduced or eliminatedthrough the ways in which buildings and spacesare designed.• There should be a recognition of the opportunityprovided by the development control part of theplanning service to ensure that crime issues arecarefully considered in approving development proposals,including the possibility that projects that do not dothis might be refused planning permission.• Since the planning system in the UK is ‘plan led’, 50appropriate policies need to be in the development planto provide a formal basis for this activity.• Effective working relationships must exist between allof the key players in the development process and, inparticular, in this context between planners and policearchitectural liaison officers. 51The Bradford case study demonstrates that much has beenachieved in moving towards a situation where crime preventionis well integrated within the planning process. However,it also shows that there is still work to be done in developingeffective working relationships and agreed stances betweenthe key players. This is clearly one of the important lessonsthat can be drawn from this case – the major elements canbe in place, but a lot still depends upon effective workingrelationships between the key players.Available evidence shows that CPTED-basedapproaches to the processes of shaping new developmentDeeply-embeddedproblems of crimeand violence arerarely amenableto simple, onedimensionalsolutionsBox 4.6 The Bradford Unitary Development Plan on planning for crime preventionThe Bradford Unitary Development Plan (which is the formal developmentplan for the City of Bradford) was adopted in October2005. It includes Policy D4, which is its most specific policy onplanning for crime prevention, and its central message is that‘Development proposals should be designed to ensure a safe andsecure environment and reduce the opportunities for crime.’ At itsheart, what this is seeking to do is to get developers to think aboutcrime prevention as part of the design process, rather than as alater add-on, so that when proposals are presented to the planningsystem for formal approval, crime prevention is already integral tothem. As such, it draws heavily on the traditions of CPTED, asexpressed through the British police’s Secured by Design scheme.To this end, developers are expected to think, in particular, aboutthe following issues:• natural surveillance of public and semi-private spaces,especially in relation to entrances to developments, paths, playspaces, open spaces and car parks;• defensible space, which should be created with the clear definition,differentiation and robust separation of public, private andsemi-private space so that all spaces are clearly defined andadequately protected in terms of use and ownership;• lighting of the development and, in particular, of streets andpaths;• design and layout of pedestrian, cycle and vehicular routes intoand within the site, including how these integrate with existingpatterns;• landscaping and planting, especially to avoid the creation ofhiding places and dark or secluded areas.The policy also advises developers to make early contact with thepolice architectural liaison officer for Bradford when consideringsignificant development proposals, and it promises that moredetailed guidance will be published in future to supplement theoutline provided by Policy D4.Source: Kitchen, 2007