“Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) is a term that is used to mean designing out or preventing crime by checking the design of buildings, landscaping and outdoor environments which can either encourage or discourage crime. CPTED attempts to minimize crime and the fear of crime by reducing criminal opportunity.” Opticom CEO Tim Chege told Cytonn Report.

Opticom basically looks at how secure a place will be before it is developed. Be it a hospital, a bank, a mall, the security company advises on how structures will be set up to minimize or avoid any cases from crime once the building is set up.

“At Opticom, we look to point out and eliminate any factors or risks that might make crime to flourish in a particular area,” Chege noted, “we use this to advise a developer on the designs that will ensure the building is secured.”

“After the development is completed, we start to work on the risks and then formulate a way to eliminate anything that will favour crime,” he added.

The security company looks at every possible factor that could contribute to crime and fill out any possible crevice to the security profile of a company; for instance, how the company would recruit, where the CCTV cameras will face and also the number of guards needed. This approach looks at every little detail.

CPTED differs from traditional approaches by placing most of its emphasis on human activities and how they become exposed to crime and loss. Traditional approaches to crime control, centers on the offender, the offense, and the offender’s background.

According to Tim Chege, this approach could see crime mitigated in the near future if it is embraced by many. It is an increasingly fashionable approach and is being implemented on a global scale.