2008-11-05 P & R Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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What Makes A Park Safe? By Tom McKay Many of us have a preconceived and general notion about what makes a park safe. However, few of us look at the design of our parks as if we were the criminals or would feel confident in describing all the elements required to make a safe park. As a police officer and Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED - pronounced sep-ted) specialist with the Peel Regional Police in Brampton, Ontario, I use my knowledge and experience of CPTED and the criminal element to question everything and never look at a property the same way again. This helps me to objectively conduct a thorough and situational assessment of all the factors that influence the safety of our environment including the assessment of frequently overlooked variables that often form part of a current standard or generally accepted practice. To illustrate this point, I direct your attention to the two photos that accompany this article. The photos represent the end result of a city policy that requires the lighting of paved walkways. The lights are set out according to a common standard and only the setting has changed. Given this fact, the lighting of paved walkways is routinely accepted and seldom, if ever, challenged. Yet I would ask each of you to disregard the policy and take a moment to select the single example that you feel is appropriate based solely on its merits. It is interesting to note that, based on my experience in asking this question in CPTED classes, there is likely to be a debate amongst readers as to which lighting application is correct. The readers choosing the isolated path will select this walkway as the proper lighting application as they will tend to base their selection on the need to light the most dangerous walkway scenario. This group tends to unconditionally equate lighting with