I recently was driven to purchase of about 9 books from the ASIS book store. One of them was the 3rd Edition of a book entitled Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design by Timothy D. Crowe and Lawrence J. Fennelly. Tim passed away in 2009 and therefore this book was through the efforts of Lawrence J. Fennelly and many people who knew Tim over his life. They took many of his documents some that hadn't been published to put this together. The photo on the right was taken when I was visiting the National Crime Prevention Institute in the mid 1980's. It pictures Tim in the green shirt with an exchange professor from the British Crime Prevention Center in London. He was a Superintendent from Scotland Yard and was by no means as humorless as I had always believed. The photo was taken at a Louisville Redbirds game and I have a great photo of the exchange prof holding a beer with his head inside the beak of the Redbirds mascot.
I highly recommend Tim's latest book as well as the other two versions. I knew Tim for nearly 20 years and was the sponsor for his CPTED course in the state of Washington at least 4 times. I also taught with him and for him as he had me teach one of his 40 hour courses when he had double booked. It was an exceptional experience and I felt quite honored that he asked me to do it.
CPTED is a basic concept in crime prevention and he brings out many of the things that other people don't think about. The primary lesson is to ask what are you trying to do and how can we help you do it better. He was an exceptional criminologist and was eager to share his wealth of knowledge with others. He really brings CPTED to life and gives a real understanding of how the built environment is related to the human function and that things like color, lighting, texture, etc. can manipulate behavior. He also is interested in the fact that people who are involved in built space are very myopic and therefore, their space becomes one dimensional. He maintains that people who are specializing in lighting are always looking up, those that are interested in flooring are always looking down and crime prevention specialists are only interested in doors and windows. This provides a limiting way of looking at the built environment.
For more of a Tim Crowe focus I encourage you to get a copy of any of his three books (first edition, second edition or third edition) and see why CPTED makes so much sense in the planning of communities and is actually a way of approaching many other issues as well.
Alex E. Ward, CPP
Board Certified in Security Management (American Society for Industrial Security)
MCPA in conjunction with the Yellowstone County DUI Task Force and Q2 produced these DUI PSA's. They paint a sad picture of DUI in Montana and have been viewed on television as well as on you tube. This is one way we can educate folks as to things they need to know about crime.
An excerpt from Paul Greenwood who will be a speaker at the Operation Stop Scams seminar in Billings on August 30 at the Bighorn Resort from Noon - 4:30.
