Let's talk CPTED in the desert surrounded by palm trees

Back in the USA after many years, the International CPTED Association, and the US and Canadian chapters are running an exciting conference on the latest in CPTED 

by Gregory Saville

We end this year with an exciting announcement – following our 2023/24 SafeGrowth training in Palm Springs, California, I am pleased to announce that the international Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design conference will be held in that city on May 11-14, 2025. 

This event was rescheduled from earlier this year and it is now expanded considerably. The theme is COMMUNITY BUILDING AND EMPOWERMENT: A HOLISTIC CPTED APPROACH. The CPTED conference is co-sponsored by CPTED USA, CPTED/PCAM Canada, and the International CPTED Association (ICA). It is the inaugural event for both the Canadian and USA chapters! 

A TIME OF TURBULENCE

This is the first ICA CPTED conference in the United States in many years. It comes at a critical time for CPTED with new discoveries, theories, progress, and threats. Here are just a few that will show up in conference discussions: 

• CPTED has been attacked by those who mistake CPTED for hostile architecture 
• New technologies like facial recognition and artificial intelligence challenge CPTED in unexpected ways 
• The ICA and the United Nations are in discussions for a new partnership to expand the reach of CPTED
• Resistance to new CPTED theories from traditionalists
• Some jurisdictions have passed mandatory CPTED regulations (Florida)

These are challenging times. There is much to discuss!

 

A desert retreat in the city, the Palm Springs Hilton Hotel
will host the 2025 CPTED conference

THE CONFERENCE

This unique, world-class event will feature training sessions with site visits to nearby neighborhoods, followed by experiential design sessions with some of the world’s top CPTED urban designers.  

The conference will feature training sessions on how you can become CPTED certified and how to access accredited courses.  

The first keynote speaker is Police Chief Andy Mills from the Palm Springs Police Department. He has an impressive background that includes graduating from the FBI National Academy and Indiana Wesleyan University. He played a vital role in introducing CPTED to Palm Springs and will share insights on how CPTED and law enforcement together are tackling today’s challenges.

The second keynote speaker is Shamichael Hallman, director of Civic Health and Economic Opportunity at the Urban Libraries Council in Washington DC. Shamichael will describe the untapped potential of libraries as vibrant community hubs that foster connections and enhance public safety. At a time when neighborhoods face toxic drugs, homelessness, and street crime, Shamichael’s innovative ideas offer CPTED practitioners fresh opportunities for creating assets to cut crime. 

One of the few remaining cities to use the dull glow of
low-pressure sodium lighting for streets in Palm Springs
- a tactic often discouraged by CPTED experts

THE CITY – PALM SPRINGS 

The CPTED conference is held at an outstanding tourist destination, favored by Hollywood celebrities and featuring Mid-Century Modern architecture. It offers stunning desert landscapes, endless sunshine, and options for architectural tours and hiking through breathtaking canyons. 

The conference venue is the Palm Springs Hilton Hotel and it is considered a desert retreat a few minutes walk from downtown shops, restaurants, and entertainment. 

The conference will feature site visits and training design sessions
on areas in Palm Springs - including the Baristo neighborhood park

REGISTER BEFORE DISCOUNTS EXPIRE  

ICA members qualify for a membership discount. Conference registration discounts are available here until February 28.

See the latest in CPTED and community empowerment, and exciting new technologies. Meet CPTED practitioners, researchers, writers, police, security, community members, and urban designers. The extensive list of presenters will soon be posted in the program on the ICA website. 

 

What makes a competent CPTED practitioner?

Certification in CPTED comes down to some essential learning and practical skills -  it all begins with reading and studying  

by Mateja Mihinjac 

When working with clients in SafeGrowth we often get asked: “How do I know what CPTED expert I should hire?” 

Our response: “Make sure their expertise is certified by an independent and widely recognized third-party professional organisation.”

In practice, this is not so black and white. Many consultants claim they have knowledge or experience practicing Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). It is not uncommon to have CPTED consultants self-proclaim themselves “CPTED experts” after entering the job market directly from University, with no practical experience in the field. 

Other consultants are well-seasoned individuals who have been practicing in the field for years and convince themselves they know everything there is to know about CPTED. They don’t read, write, or publish in technical or scientific journals about CPTED. Consequently, they provide the same simple CPTED advice throughout their career with little reference to recent research or modifications to CPTED theory.

Assessing the same environment at night and day
- an essential data collection skill for the competent CPTED practitioner

Class learning or field experience? Neither group is populated by the best example of competent CPTED expertise. This arises due to several reasons:

• College/university education might provide foundational knowledge (theoretical understanding, how to collect and analyse data). While it is important to have advanced knowledge, that alone will not work without considerable practical experience. In the real world of preventing crime, theory cannot function without practice, and vice versa.

• CPTED experience might help a practitioner understand a problem, the environment, or how people behave. However, a CPTED practitioner should never believe they know everything due to their experience. There are many cases when past experience does not explain changes in offending behaviour or prevention methods. Theories evolve to respond to those social changes and only by keeping up with recent findings and new theories can a practitioner truly master the complex field called CPTED. 

All experts must constantly refresh themselves with new theoretical concepts. Our physical, social, and administrative environments change as society changes. That means crime and safety threats evolve. CPTED theory, policies, and other legal and regulatory documents must evolve to reflect those changes. That means a competent CPTED expert constantly reads, attends conferences, and writes about such things.

That leads to an obvious question: How can we ensure CPTED consultants possess the knowledge, skills, and experiential abilities needed in the field? 

Outdoor research tours are an essential ingredient for CPTED training

CPTED CERTIFICATION FOR INDIVIDUALS - ICCP

This year the ICCP (ICA’s CPTED Certification Program for Individuals) is 20 years old. 

Those unfamiliar with professional certification sometimes confuse the content of CPTED with the practice of CPTED. While theory and practice are interconnected, the primary measure of the certified expert is their competency in how they practice CPTED. That is obviously reflected in their background knowledge, what ICCP terms core subjects. This places the ICCP as a competency-based certification program. 

On the ICA’s website, the ICCP is described as:

“Certification in the field of one's choosing is a way of indicating to yourself that you have arrived. You have achieved a level of expertise … Certifications provide a raised bar to which those new to the field can strive. Certification also serves to lock out charlatans claiming to be "trained" or "certified" by merely attending a course or taking a test.“

The competency units within the ICCP program are on the website. 

The International CPTED Association website hosts the ICCP Certification Program information. It also lists additional learning resources like webinars and guidebooks

 

PROFESSIONALISING THE FIELD

While CPTED doesn’t need the same level of certification as medical and engineering professions, CPTED does respond to personal threats to property and lives. These are important matters and the ICA is pleased to have contributed to the advancement of CPTED over the past decades. 

All this has led to exciting new initiatives:

GLOBAL CPTED STANDARDS

Another movement forward, that certified professionals must know, is that CPTED now has its own European Standards and international ISO Standards.

CPTED-GRANTS

Many CPTED-related grant proposals in North America now require a certified CPTED professional on the submission team. 

EXPERT WITNESSES IN COURT

CPTED experts, including ICA CPTED-certified members, are now regularly called as expert witnesses in criminal and civil trials. 

COURSE ACCREDITATION

In 2019 the ICA launched an accompanying program – the Course Accreditation Program (CAP) – to accredit CPTED courses that teach the KSAs – the knowledge, skills, and abilities of novice CPTED practitioners. 

As such, CAP offers an accelerated pathway towards obtaining CPTED certification. One example is our SafeGrowth program which is CAP-accredited and several graduates have already successfully pursued the ICCP. 

 

CAP accredited CPTED courses include urban design sessions

WHAT IS A CERTIFIED CPTED EXPERT?

It is reasonable to ask why CPTED warrants a professional-level certification. As you can see from the discussion above, a competent CPTED professional knows that their decisions can prevent crime and their recommendations impact people’s quality of life. They can save lives. Those recommendations come with equity and ethical implications. 

In some cases, those recommendations might even mean the difference between life and death. Certification matters!