Crime Prevention Tip of the Month
How to Improve Your Property's Value

February 2005
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Dear Reader,

Welcome to the Crime Prevention Tip of the Month. First, a little about me. I'm a working Police Officer in my thirtieth year with a major North American Police Service. I've been involved in Crime Prevention for 9 years and specialize in CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design). In fact, I instruct other officers in this at the Police College. In my position as Crime Prevention Officer, I consult with homeowners, businesses and developers in their attempt to design out crime.

I am delighted to contribute to the Mr. Goodbar® website. I firmly believe that physical security is the best kind of security because it leaves no question in the mind of the criminal as to the premise's level of protection. In my opinion, the use of window bars is the next best visual deterrent to having a Police Officer standing on your lawn.

How to Improve Your Property's Value
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It happens all the time.

An area of the city that's been perfectly respectable for decades suddenly starts showing up again and again on police logs. When the crime rate starts rising, I can guarantee you that a visual inspection of the neighborhood will turn up the following characteristics:

• Untended vacant lots - long grass, weedy, overgrown bushes, garbage
• Vacant buildings
• Illegal dumping (couches in alleys, for example)
• Graffiti
• Increase in people on the street
• A general air of neglect

These physical symptoms of decline lead to lower property values and higher crime rates, which, in turn, lead to worsening physical conditions. Which lead to even lower property values and even higher crime rates. You can see where this is going.

Once they start deteriorating, neighborhoods tend to get worse and worse. The main reason for this is that people get scared. They start to mistrust everyone on the block. They feel helpless looking at abandoned buildings and overgrown vacant lots. A sense of "There's nothing I can do" begins to pervade the entire community and, as a result, everyone hides behind their curtains!

So should you take a loss on your home and get the heck out?

No! First, there's no guarantee the same thing won't happen in the next area you live in. More importantly, it really isn't that hard to pull a declining neighborhood back up to its original position.

Creating a sense of community is your first step. Form a Community Association. (Look on the web to find out how.) Talk to your neighbors. Set goals for your neighborhood and include action plans to attain those goals. Many major cities have local organizations dedicated to improving bad neighborhoods. And the police are always willing to help

Even if no one will help your community, you can still improve it. You and your neighbors can take it upon yourselves to clean up garbage, get rid of graffiti, and fix up deteriorating properties (with the owner's consent). In Crime Prevention, it's called the Broken Windows theory. It originated in New York City, where they reduced crime by an astounding amount simply by cleaning and fixing up the small stuff. You give the area a friendlier feel just by fixing a broken window. It becomes contagious, and the next thing you know your neighbour is fixing his windows too.

Remember, bad guys are cowards at heart. When they see that your community values itself and takes care of itself, they'll go somewhere else.

Click here for more information on Goodbar's Community Involvement

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