21st Century Security and CPTED, 2nd Edition

9

2

Getting Started*

DON’T BE PARANOID!

“So what are you afraid of?” “What’s the worst that can happen?” “Don’t be so paranoid!”

You have probably heard one or more of these types of statements from people in your family or

work environment. You may have asked yourself these questions. The answers are sometimes intui-

tive, and sometimes they are a result of thorough investigation. There is a methodology to ascertain

the level of threat and risk, but rst we must understand what these terms mean. Once we understand

the threats and risks, then we can design the appropriate level of the crime prevention through envi-

ronmental design (CPTED) and security strategy to counter them.

Achieving the correct level of protection against site-based threats can be very expensive and is

highly dependent on the nature of the protected assets and the threat against which they require pro-

tection. Determining what is required is a matter of identifying the perceived risks. If the designer is

to assist in providing protection in the design of the site, an assessment of the security requirements

must be accomplished, preferably before the design begins, but certainly no later than the begin-

ning of the architectural programming phase. This assessment is the responsibility of the owner;

however, it is incumbent on the designer to ensure that the nature of the security requirements is

determined before the design begins. Failing to make a denitive plan at the outset will certainly

result in design changes, delays, and cost increases to the owner and to the architect if the owner

discovers the security needs later in the design process.

The site assessment should answer four questions:

1. What are the assets (persons, places, information, property) that require security protection?

2. What are the criminal or other threats (street crime, workplace violence, terrorism, sabo-

tage) against which the assets must be protected?

3. What are the vulnerabilities of the assets to the threats (for example, if workplace violence

is a threat, can uncontrolled persons enter private workspace unchallenged)?

4. What are the countermeasures (for example, does the design channel visitors through

controlled site access portals) required to mitigate the threat?

*

Portions of the text in this chapter consist of articles and other content previously written by the author including possible

portions found in the following ASIS International publication Protection of Assets (POA) Manual, ASIS International

(various contributors), ASIS International, © 2004. We offer special thanks to ASIS International for permission to

reproduce common content in this work.

CONTENTS

Don’t Be Paranoid! ............................................................................................................................9

Designing for Security Is a Process ................................................................................................. 10

What Is Being Protected .................................................................................................................. 10

Needs Assessment ....................................................................................................................... 12

3-D: The Basis of Security Design ..................................................................................................13

Summary .......................................................................................................................................... 13

References ........................................................................................................................................15