21st Century Security and CPTED, 2nd Edition

623

26

Parking Lots and Garages

Parking facilities, by their very nature, are challenging to make into secure environments. They are

a land use with a single purpose, and they do not easily allow for mixed uses that might encourage

territoriality. They contain large high-rise garage walls, structural columns, and multi-levels, which

create poor visibility and make them vulnerable to crime. Subsurface or underground parking facil-

ities are often part of a building’s foundation, have little to no outside exposure for visibility, and can

be an easy target for terrorism (World Trade Center, 1993; Madrid airport parking lot, 2006). It is

difcult to control access to large open parking lots, and they make an inviting environment for car

thieves, purse snatching, and car burglary. Parking structures, whether they are surface lots, above

or below ground, are perceived as dark, isolated, and dangerous environments.

The primary goal of designing safe garages and parking facilities is to create an atmosphere

that makes potential criminals feel that they will be observed, and improve the chances they will

be challenged. The eventual goal is for the criminal to realize that the gain is not worth the effort.

In order to accomplish these goals, careful application of CPTED principles and practices is

necessary. In some jurisdictions, such as New South Wales, Australia, parking design guidelines

include CPTED requirements (McCamley, 2002). But in most others, there are none. This chapter

details some basic CPTED design considerations.

STANDARD OF CARE

Parking facilities are supposed to provide a safe area for auto storage and passage of users to and

from their vehicle. Of all of the premises liability litigation occurring over the last decade in the

United States, 18% of the lawsuits were related to parking lots or facilities (Bates, 1999, 2004).

Forty four percent of the reported rapes and sexual assaults in the United States in 1994 occurred in

parking facilities. Of 1994 reported violent crimes, 8.5% took place in parking facilities. In a 2004

update of previous research (Bates, 2004, p. 15), parking facilities are the most common location

for an incident to occur for all business categories combined, especially for sexual assault, assault,

and battery (see Figures 26.1 and 26.2).

CONTENTS

Standard of Care ............................................................................................................................623

Perimeter Controls .........................................................................................................................626

Landscaping and Access Points ..................................................................................................... 629

CCTV and Surveillance .................................................................................................................634

Graphics and Waynding ............................................................................................................... 648

Lighting .......................................................................................................................................... 651

Mixed and Multiple Uses ...............................................................................................................659

Parking Management .....................................................................................................................659

Security Management ....................................................................................................................659

Summary ........................................................................................................................................ 661

Appendix: Checklists for Parking Security ....................................................................................666

References ......................................................................................................................................666

624 21st Century Security and CPTED

Parking facilities have many factors that create opportunities of high risk of criminal behavior,

because there is generally a low level of activity in parking facilities, with lots of hiding places and

numerous areas of shade and dark shadows. Parking facilities usually have multiple means of entry

and thus provide many easy means of escape after a crime.

The TOP TEN most commonly made errors in the design and operation of parking facilities include

the following:

1. Having unattended facilities, except for someone occasionally stationed at the entry or exit

to collect revenue

2. The parking facility is designed with numerous hiding spaces

3. The lack of electronic security measures for surveillance and access control

4. The observation by users between parking bays is obscured with structural or design

elements

FIGURE 26.1 Parking garages are such a scary place they made a horror movie about the fearful experience

of being stalked in a garage.

FIGURE 26.2 The author in a typical state of paranoia at a P2 level of a garage.