LOUISVILLE, Ky. — On a well-manicured block of Louisville’s Parkland neighborhood, there’s a historical plaque marking a modest pink house as the site of something special.

“It says it’s Muhammad Ali’s childhood home and that’s a CPTED measure” said Russell Kolins, a security expert who teaches courses on Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, or CPTED, at the University of Louisville.

As Louisville’s deadliest year ever draws to a close — there have been at least 181 homicides in 2021 — city leaders are embracing CPTED as part of efforts to reimagine public safety. The philosophy calls for changing the built and natural environment, from cleaning up blighted properties to installing street lights, in ways that both reduce the opportunity to commit crime and enhance community life. But rather than hardening with fences, locks, or cameras, CPTED promotes increasing visibility and beautification.

“There are multiple risk factors for violence and some of those risk factors are within the physical environment,” said Monique Williams, director of the Louisville's Office for Safe & Healthy Neighborhoods (OSHN). 

Beginning in January, OSHN will convene community members in six Louisville neighborhoods to partake in CPTED training and designate ways to put the philosophy into practice. Williams said those neighborhoods are Newburg, Park Hill, Portland, Russell, Shawnee and Smoketown. Each will be given a $15,000 budget to put the principles of CPTED into practice. 

“We'll be looking to help communities do some action planning and build out frameworks for violence prevention specific to their neighborhoods,” Williams said. “It'll be a new strategy for our city, but it's not a new strategy in the research”

One of the most popular ways to implement CPTED measures is to increase street lighting. “Lighting helps people feel safer and reduces the opportunity for crime," Kolins said. “Criminals have always taken advantage of the dark to engage in stealth and surprise.”

Research has shown that increased lighting can help reduce significant criminal activity. In 2016, researchers in New York City partnered with the city to install additional street lights in some public housing developments with high crime levels. After six months, the housing developments saw a 36% drop in serious crimes compared to housing developments that did not receive more lighting. 

CPTED is much more than lighting though. “Let's say there are a lot of drive-bys on a particular street, maybe we put speed bumps in those areas,” Williams said. “It’s things as simple as mowing lawns and strategies for addressing properties that are vacant and abandoned and have no ownership or oversight.”

“Natural surveillance” is a key tenet of ​​CPTED. Kolins explained it as the idea that “there are no obstructions and areas can be seen by the human eye from far distances.” Property owners can increase “natural surveillance” by pruning shrubs and removing fences that obstruct the view of the street. They can also discourage crime through beautification, whether it’s planting flowers or putting a new coat of paint on their home or business. 

“One of the important things that CPTED achieves is reducing fear so people will get out more,” Kolins said. “The increased presence of people shows that they take pride in their community and they're taking advantage of it.”

In some cases, CPTED concepts are implemented in an attempt to convey that an area is cared for and valued by those who live there. In other cases, they’re meant to turn otherwise abandoned spaces into areas that the public can use. 

One successful example in Philadelphia, called Urban Creators, involved turning three acres of vacant land into “a network of urban gardens and public green spaces.” The project has provided food to people, created jobs, and resulted in a drop in crime. Cleveland Neighborhood Progress views “vacant land as a raw asset,” and has turned it into vineyards, orchards, gardens and pocket parks.

At its most successful, CPTED both cuts crime and enhances neighborhoods. It reduces interactions between law enforcement and citizens, benefiting an under-staffed police force and satisfying activists who have called for a reduced police presence. Williams also hopes it will show people that violence reduction is a nuanced issue that can be addressed from a variety of angles.

“There are risk factors outside of the individual that contribute to crime,” she said. “If we get to a place of understanding that philosophically — that our strategies can’t just focus on perpetrators or victims — and if we are intentional about addressing all of those risk factors, we’ll get the best outcomes.”