In the Spotlight
Residents Learn Security Tactics for Home and Property

Kansas City, MO (March 19, 2010) For Toi Wilson, spending one of the first warm spring evenings indoors at a crime prevention workshop was worth her time. She joined fellow Blue Hills residents at the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) workshop presented by Kansas City Missouri Police to hear strategies to protect her home and property. 

“For me, the workshop was a check point of where I need to make improvements to security around my house,” said Wilson, who has

lived in the Blue Hills neighborhood for 30 years. “I now know thatthere

are bushes obstructing my front walkway that need to be trimmed back.”

Sponsored by Greater Kansas City LISC and Blue Hills Community Services, the CPTED training provided a common-sense approach to basic crime prevention, including landscape, lighting and fencing information, examples and tips. Blue Hills is part of NeighborhoodsNOW, the multi-year initiative of Greater Kansas City LISC to rebuild targeted urban-core neighborhoods into sustainable communities.

“CPTED workshops are an excellent example of our mission in action,” said Julie Porter, Greater Kansas City LISC Executive Director. “By bringing the expertise and success tools to the neighborhoods, we believe they have a greater opportunity to become places where residents want to live, work, play and, most importantly, stay.”

Left photo - Toi Wilson (second from left) joined fellow Blue Hills residents to learn tactics to make their homes more secure.  Right photo - KCMO Police Officer Jason Cooley provided helpful information, examples and tips to bring CPTED lessons to life.

CPTED is based on the premise that “the proper design and effective

use of the built environment can lead to a reduction in the fear of crime   and incidence of crime, and to an improvement in quality of life,”    according to the National Institute of Crime Prevention.

 “We know that the prevention strategies work; and it’s important for residents to be aware of how they can better protect themselves,” said East Patrol Officer Jason Cooley, who led the presentation. Officer Cooley is one of three KCMO police officers who attended a national CPTED training paid for by LISC so that they could teach the community and train other officers.

In addition to the officer training, this was the second CPTED workshop for area residents and businesses that Greater Kansas City LISC has sponsored since fall 2009.

NeighborhoodsNOW - Fostering Safe and Healthy Environments