Having been introduced to CPTED in the early 90’s I quickly discovered there were limited opportunities for networking between Practitioners within the United States. At the time there were CPTED Networks in other countries that promoted their own national standards, and were self-serving. I always found that in the US, our approach to CPTED was a bit different. I found disagreement between urban designers, architects, government, security professionals, non-profits, residents, public health, etc. on how to apply CPTED. There was much confusion on terminology and applications. Each group had their own approach and agenda, and in many cases, there was limited dialogue between them. I found a variety of reasons why this occured. The first was a lack of understanding of the concepts and applications. The second was a lack of venturing out from a given profession to ask what others were doing and what solutions they had to similar problems. The third was a lack of a common network where all practitioners could reach out to each other in order to share information and collaborate. There was no common strategy that would allow every group to apply CPTED as a uniformed standard.
We have some catching up to do in order to accomplish this. While other countries promote their programs, our cities and counties promote their programs. Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design was a term that was introduced in the US by Florida State University Criminology Professor C. Ray Jeffery in 1971. Why have we not progressed further with the program? Why do many choose not to use the acronym CPTED as part of their program? Why do many choose not to recognize the program and rename it to fit their needs?
The United States CPTED Association will provide us the opportunity to create the change needed to connect with others. Sharing the same language, vision, goals, and outcome. Our goal is to provide opportunities to network with other Practitioners who have made great strides in applying CPTED within their cities, companies, neighborhoods and to share that knowledge with other likeminded Practitioners.
