Local criminals may soon find their jobs harder.
This semester, an urban and regional planning class at UF is working with the Gainesville Police Department to make burglary more difficult through changes in the environment.
"Criminals want to remain anonymous," GPD Lt. Art Adkins said. "If you can eliminate the hiding places - the areas where they may conceal themselves - then they're not going to commit crime."
Changing the environment to eradicate crime is known as crime prevention through environmental design, referred to in Europe at CPTED.
UF urban and regional planning professor Richard Schneider has worked with the Gainesville police on community-related crime prevention projects over the past 15 years, often involving his class.
However, Adkins said this is the first time they've made it a structured endeavor. When Adkins brought up a more formal partnership, Schneider described it as an "Aha!" moment.
"This was another opportunity to collaborate on a project that benefits the students and both institutions as well as the wider Gainesville community," Schneider said.
His class, Defensible Space and CPTED in Urban Design: Planning for Crime Prevention, consists of 21 graduate and undergraduate students who were divided into teams and assigned to study sites around Gainesville including housing areas and restaurants.
The students were given information for each site, including crime incident reports, photographs and access to crime mapping files, and they studied the inside and outside of the buildings. They took photos and measurements and talked with the management of each business or recreation site.
Adkins said that the students are looking at four basic things: lighting, traffic flow, ambush points and shrubbery.
Buildings and surrounding areas should be well-lit, human traffic should be kept to specified areas and hiding places such as crevices between walls should be avoided.
Shrubs should be no higher than 2 feet so that officers on patrol can see over them, and trees should be trimmed to hang no closer than 6 feet to the ground so police can see under them.
During nighttime visits, students are accompanied by Cpl. Audrey Mazzuca.
"We don't like them going places at night. They may set off an alarm, or people may think they're burglarizing," she said. "When I go with them at night, it's just to have that law enforcement presence."
When the research is complete, students will make recommendations to the business owners on how to make their properties safer.
Adkins said he would also like the class to create a template of the process so officers have examples of what can be done to increase safety in different situations.
"That's why we chose three different kinds of places," he said. "Our long-term goal is to make everyone CPTED compliant."
One student is also working to change the city ordinance to require business owners to comply with crime prevention through environmental design.
Schneider said the experience benefits his students in many ways.
"I think getting students out of the classroom to actually see the linkages between theory and practice is essential," he said. "It's a fundamental way of learning by doing. Further, students like projects with 'real world' connections and especially those that can make a positive difference in people's lives. I believe they remember the work - both the theory and practice - for the rest of their lives, which is more than the residual of lots of other academic work."
On Oct. 20, the students presented their initial findings and recommendations in class to Officer Derek Tirado. The final presentation to business managers, owners and residents will take place Dec. 1.
Adkins said the officers are all impressed with the students' work and see them more as partners than students.
"They meet over here from time to time," Schneider said. "We turn our DataTrac room over to them. We want to welcome them; they're our partners, and they do a fantastic job. I greatly rely on their input and their recommendations."
Adkins said that he hopes to make the partnership long term.
"With the fiscal constraints with our budget right now, we're not going to get any more officers," he said.
"Partnerships like the one we have with Dr. Schneider's class are not only a good idea; they are essential for us to continue our current level of service."
