foundationsremoved from the present moment. so the policeman saw the proposal of a more stable
job in administration in a new light. after his return to work, the policeman accepted
the new position under the condition that he would be given a four- month period
to investigate how burglaries in his district occurred. he intended to begin humbly,
by observing how cellar and attic burglaries happened in the housing areas. in spite
of initial objections on the part of his boss, the policeman was allowed to begin his
investigations. he was even supported by a few other policemen.
The policeman read all the reports and court files about burglaries in cellars and
attics during the last two years. it seemed that certain buildings were more frequently
‘visited’ than others. The policeman made several inspections of those buildings and
he tried to understand how the crimes had been executed. What made the policeman
pay special attention was the lack of reporting information on when the burglaries
took place and why it was possible to execute them. some caretakers and tenants
mentioned that not all burglaries were reported to the police as the value of the stolen
goods was not that high and the percentage of solved burglaries was not so impressive.
The policeman and one of his colleagues resolved to sit on folding chairs in an empty
cellar storage area and wait for the thieves. during the school lunch break two children
arrived and pulled at the lock. They left, but returned after school hours and broke
into the cellar. during only three days, the two policemen reported fifty children aged
between eight and twelve, all of them caught red- handed. The policemen interviewed
the children to find out the reasons for these petty crimes. The results were surprising.
Through the burglaries, the children said they experienced excitement, discovered new
spaces for play and looked for what could be vandalized. economic gain was the reason
for only a few burglaries.
The colleagues of the policemen began to pay more and more attention to the
project. They went on guard for a few nights, and this was rewarded with new insights.
around one o’clock in the morning another group of burglars arrived. These ones were
more professional and goal- oriented. They looked in the cellars and attics for more
valuable objects to be stolen and sold. While the child burglars were those living in the
district, the adult burglars arrived from other districts or even other counties. money
from the thefts was to be used mostly on drugs. it was not difficult to break into the
cellars or attics. around 100 burglars were captured over the space of two months.
Whereas in the past, the police mainly responded to alarms and reports, they
now began to investigate crime patterns in order to recognize mechanisms, which in
turn led them back to the crimes at a better rate. The policeman who initiated these
investigations and proposed preventive measures was invited by the national police
administration to act as an expert on crime prevention. he became the head of a new
development unit based on three components: iT, context and future analysis, as well
as CpTed – Crime prevention through environmental design.
The policeman and his team examined urban plans and housing projects in order
to guide people on how to prevent crime. They developed a serious expertise on what
mistakes architects, builders, planners and landlords used to make in their projects. The
policeman decided to write a manual, based on many investigations from crime scenes
as well as results of his unit’s own tests of different technical solutions. The people in
the unit were aware of their unique expertise and of the value of it being shared with
housing owners and others. The county authority and its board supported the unit