Short and Long Term Crime Prevention Strategies

Question 1 

All the three buildings in the campus are critical assets due to their different sensitivity to the threat posed. Building one housing the senior administrators is a high-risk building since if the protestors secure their entry into the building, they may want to attack them as they are the ones uncharged of running a company purported to make opioids. Its location at the farthest end of the compound near the interstate highway makes it more prone to attack since the protestors may gain entry from the road. 

Building 2 is sensitive because it houses the research center and information technology; hence, the attackers may want to gain access to verify if indeed the company is involved in the production of opioids. Its location at the center of the campus site and directly facing the entryway makes it the first point to be attacked in case the protestors overpower the security officers. 

Building 3 is sensitive since it contains laboratories and storage. The protestors may be interested in these areas because they would want to know whether opioids are manufactured there. The storage is sensitive since the protestors may become rogue and want to loot from the company. Its location near the entryway makes it prone to attack too. 

Assumptions 

The building complex does not have secure perimeter fencing all round 

The company does not have well-trained guards. 

Consequently, the following security countermeasures should be installed to ensure the building complex has a well-layered security complex. 

Erection of a sound fencing system all round. A stonewalling with cabling at the top would be most appropriate to deter intruders into the complex. 

Separation of entry and exit ways into the complex. This will help ensure proper and adequate screening of vehicles and persons into the building. The two ways can also be useful in case one of the ways is closed the other can be used. 

The complex should install a different emergency exit at a different location from the typical entry and exit routes. The emergency exit should, at all times have a clear way to ensure no blockage in case a situation occurs. 

Twenty-four-hour manning and surveillance of the complex by armed security personnel. This will help to keep off potential intruders into the complex, especially at night when the company operation halt. 

Installation of metal detectors at the entry points. These will be useful in detecting weapons such as guns into the building. This is mainly for intruders who may want to gain access in the pretense of being visitors. 

Installation of CCTV systems all around the complex perimeter fencing and especially near the side facing the river. This is because criminals are more likely to organize themselves in the neglected and hidden areas near the riverside. 

Erection of more lighting system and especially at the rear part of the building complex which is likely to be dark at night. Proper lighting eliminates places where gangsters can invade the compound. 

Replacement of the doors with high-quality steel ones fitted with suitable locks such as deadbolts. 

Installation of multiple entries and screening points before one gains entry into the three main buildings. This will help ensure that there is no chance of an armed person passing through the security checks. 

Erection of properly labelled signboards indicating that the premise is private property and no trespassing is allowed. This will help deter members likely to attack the complex. Individuals may also fear the consequences of trespass, such as prosecution or shooting if one is armed. 

Broadcast through the media of the position of the company that no opioids are manufactured and that persons intruding the premises will be prosecuted as it has happened with individuals protesting while armed. This will help to neutralize the security threat. 

Question 2 

The preliminary assessment of the apartment complex indicates that the residence is a high-risk crime area. The security vulnerability and evaluation were conducted based on the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA 426. This is due to various crime predisposing factors. These include parking in an underground garage, adjacent empty buildings, liquor store and bars, towering trees and shrubbery. These factors create a conducive environment where crime can thrive. 

Some of the measures that can be used in target hardening in a bid to reduce the risk for crime include: 

Ensuring that the apartment buildings have a secure fencing system. This is to limit the access way to the apartment complex to the gates only where security scrutiny of entrants can be done. This method is, however, vulnerable in the sense that the building occupants organize some of the criminal cases. 

Repairing damaged and empty buildings. The adjacent empty buildings need to be renovated and occupied. Renovation of empty buildings helps to displace crime. Empty buildings become dens for criminal activities and drug abuse predisposing adjacent areas to crime. 

Ensuring that all doors and windows have quality locks such as deadbolt locks (Deutsch,2019). This helps to ensure that they are burglar-proof. The doors and windows should also be made of high-quality material such as steel. 

Installation of alarm systems in the apartment complex. Alarm system help to trigger police in case of break-ins into buildings. 

Access control mechanisms. These include measures such as identification of tenants and visitors. The visitors may also have their parking area. 

Other crime prevention measures that can be used include: 

Installation of CCTV systems and ensuring their proper management. Some of the areas that the CCTVs can be installed include the parking zone, hallways and staircases. A well-monitored CCTV system helps to deter crime since potential offenders fear they are being watched. 

Ensuring proper lighting of the apartment complex. The shared public areas such as parking, building entrance, staircases and hallways should have functioning lighting system to help mitigate incidences of crime. 

All growing vegetation in the vicinity should be kept to a minimum. This helps to increase the surveillance of the surroundings. The tall trees in the region should be pruned and the shrubbery removed. This helps to away with hiding spots where potential criminals may hide. 

Security staff deployment at the entry and exit points. The security staff should be responsible for screening of vehicles and persons getting in and out of the complex. This method can, however, be compromised in scenarios where criminals work in cohort with the security staff. 

Ensuring that the entry and exit are separated. This helps to create order when screening and reduces the chances of crime thriving in the confusion that ensues when the entry and exit are combined. 

Introducing the entry card system into the apartment complex. All residents should be provided with entry cards into the apartment. Persons visiting the residents will have to seek a correspondence between the residents and security staff. A visitor badging system will also be put in place. The method is, however, likely to meet resistance from the residents as it creates a lot of bureaucracies and visitors are likely to experience delays when checking into the apartment. 

Question 3 

Premise Liability on University 

The university bears liability for the robbery and rape assault since the crime happened within the university grounds. The university has a responsibility to ensure the security of all students on the campus premises. Various pertinent questions arise as to the occurrence of the crime. Were the perpetrators of the crime students? If not, how did they gain entry into the university premises? Does the university allow guns and other weapons in its weapons? If not, how did the attackers gain entry with the guns? Does the university have sufficient security officers on guard? The various issues arising from these questions go ahead to show the liability of the university in this crime scene. 

The university ought to have a sound security system to ensure the safety of all members of the university. This includes student, staff and visitors identification at all entry points and proper screening to detect any weapons that might try to be sneaked into the university. The university surroundings also ought to be well lit, and CCTVs installed at designated areas to deter crime. The university also ought to provide transport for its off-campus students to a time that its various facilities such as the sports complex close. The campus police should also be adequate to ensure reasonable response times. The different scenarios make the university bear the premise of liability. It ought to provide a safe environment for all its visitors, staff and students. 

The crime situation presents a conflicted situation since the campus police responded late as he stopped to pick coffee as he had not had a break. However, the situation does not eliminate the legal standards that should apply. The perpetrators of the crime should be tracked and apprehended using the necessary law system. 

It is worth noting that the university plays a significant role in the provision of security to its students. Its bears the responsibility of ensuring a safe environment for the students. The different lapses in the university security system allowed the crime to thrive. Had the university employed adequate security officers, Franklin would have had his work break and he would have responded to the call in good time. Also, despite there being no legal background to charge the police officer for responding late since the student had already left, I find it that he did not make a sacrifice beyond himself. He should have responded to duty first before picking up his coffee. The situation at hand is more about morality and ethics than legal. This is because ideally, the police officer is entitled to a work break, and it only means that he had been overworked. Not to appear to blame the student who is the victim; in this case, she should have been patient and waited till the security officer came to ensure her safety. 

The take-home is, however, for the university which should learn from this case scenario and engage security experts to guide the reevaluation of its security systems. The whole of the university security system should undergo an overhaul to ensure that the security of all is guaranteed. This includes putting in place measures such as proper lighting system, CCTVs, more security officers, security patrols within the university, security checks at the university entry points. The measures may also include the screening of all members getting into the university and visitors badging system. Arrangements for crucial students' services should also be made, such as transportation for those leaving the sports complex late. Implementation of these raft of measures would go along way to ensure that students feel safe in their campus. 

Question 4 

Short Term Strategies to Deal with Crime in Schools 

Some of the methods that can be implemented to prevent crime in schools include: 

Police presence in and around the school. Engagement of the local police department to provide police in the school. Will also seek increased police prevalence around the school. This will help to deter people from engaging in crime. While this method will help to reduce instances of crime in and around the school, it has the disadvantage of causing fear and panic to students due to the feeling of "militarization". This may negatively impact the academic performance of students. 

Installation of metal detectors at all the school entry and exit points. Metal detectors in the school will help to detect any weapons that may be brought to school by students. This will help to avert criminal activities such as gang violence. This increased security check may cause students to be resentful. 

Ensuring that students lockers are burglarproof by having lockable units. This will help reduce instances of theft and vandalism in the school. 

Frisking of students. Students will be frisked, and their backpacks searched. This will help ensure that students do not bring drugs into the school environment. Drug transactions in school environment lead to violence as students fight for payment and their "zones". Students engaged in drug abuse are also likely to be violent. This method is useful as it reduces drugs in the school environment. 

Installation of closed-circuit television (CCTVs). CCTVs will be installed in all areas that crime is prone to occur. This includes zones where students sell drugs and domains where assaults re likely to occur. They will be useful in identifying culprits of theft, vandalism and assault crimes. CCTVs are effective in curbing crime since persons live in the knowledge that they are being watched and therefore are less likely to engage in crime. Its disadvantage is that it makes students hypervigilant, and this may affect their behavior. This may interfere with healthy teenage development and students are likely not to achieve excellence in their academics and other spheres. 

Long Term Strategies of Dealing with Crime in Schools 

Ensuring that students engaged in criminal activities are apprehended for their actions. This includes ensuring that they serve time in juvenile centers. The method is found to be effective in crime reduction since it helps to correct behavior among students engaged in violence . However, implementation of this method has the disadvantage of creating an impression of criminalization of the school environment (Tillyer,2011). Consequently, some students may fear to study in such an environment as they fear they may end up in juvenile. It may cause students to seek transfers to other schools. 

Setting up a wellness center. The center will be responsible for students counselling services. Students will be counselled on various matters such as drugs abuse, crime and violence. Students will be sensitized on the demerits of engaging in crime in a bid to deter them from engaging in crime. Students already hooked to drugs will be helped to enroll in rehabilitation centers to help them reform. 

Peer counselling. Students of reputable character will be involved in counselling their peers. The method is useful since the students relate to each other better and are more likely to seek help from their peers. The technique has been found to positively influence behavior (Cook et al., 2010). The method has the disadvantage of causing disunity and sidelining among students since some students are labelled moles of the administration. This may result in incidences of bullying and blackmail. However, if well managed the method is quite useful. 

Setting up of a students' social affairs kitty. One of the reasons that students engage in crime is due to lack of necessities such as upkeep money, food, and school fees etc. mostly they are students from low-income households. The school administration will allocate funds annually towards meeting the needs of these vulnerable students. A select committee will be responsible for identifying vulnerable students for resource allocation. Despite the method being effective in crime reduction, in the long run, it has the disadvantage of causing some parents to be irresponsible. 

Question 5 

Short Term Strategies of Crime Prevention in Cities 

To address the various forms of crimes experienced in large cities such as street violence, robberies, burglaries, murders, assaults and theft, the following measures will be applied. The measures are expected to yield immediate or near immediate effect in crime reduction. 

Neighborhood watch programs. Communities living in crime-infested neighborhoods will be organized into groups to ensure that they watch over each other’s homesteads and report to the police in case of suspicious activities such as break-ins (Waller and Weiler, 1985). This will be quite helpful in reducing burglaries. 

Community policing. Residents living in crime-infested neighborhoods will be engaged as stakeholders in the security sector to help combat crime in their areas (Liberman et al., 2010). This involves relaying information relating to security matters to the police. The community is also useful in identifying members of the community engaged in crime. 

Spot policing. This involves the deployment of more security personnel to areas with a high crime rate. The police may be deployed as simple police officers doing more patrolling to create increased police effect in these areas or as undercover police involved in crime investigation and prevention. 

Monitoring retail outlets dealing in second-hand items and also scrap metal dealers. This includes requiring them to have consent and receipt forms for the various merchandises. This will help to reduce the incidences of theft whereby the items are later sold to second-hand dealers. 

Encourage homeowners to put in place burglary prevention mechanisms. These include lockable doors, gates, and ensuring that their compounds are appropriately fenced. 

Street lighting program. A request will be made to the mayor’s office to install street lights along streets and walkways that are not lit. Better lighting on the streets helps to modify the environment and discourages crime such as burglaries and theft (Plant and Scott, 2009). 

Installation of closed-circuit television (CCTV). CCTVs use cameras to capture, monitor, record and transmit video images. It is useful in reducing robberies, theft, murders, and assaults since the CCTV footage at the time a crime was committed can be recovered and analyzed to find the culprits. 

Long Term Strategies for Crime Prevention in Cities 

Long term strategies for crime prevention aim to address the root causes of crime such as drug abuse, joblessness and homelessness. Some of the measures that can be used include: 

Ensuring that community recreational centers are in good shape and functional. These include public parks, playgrounds, cinemas and theatres. They help to ensure that the youth are engaged during their leisure time and thus minimizing their likelihood of being lured into criminal gangs or engaging in drug and substance abuse. Persons involved in drugs and substance abuse are more likely to get into crime since they require money to sustain these habits. 

Rehabilitation programs. In collaboration with the mayor's office ensure that the city rehabilitation centers are functional. This will ensure that drug and substance abuse victims are adequately equipped as they reintegrate back to society. The police would be engaged in giving talks on the demerits of engaging in crime to deter the members from engaging in crime. 

Job and skills training centers. Ensure that the various technical schools are offering relevant training that can support individuals’ livelihoods. Also, in partnership with the prisons department ensure that inmates jailed for crime-related offences are trained on various skills and job training. This will help them to acquire legal employment after finishing their jail terms and ensure that they integrate well in society (Shaw,2010). Individuals that are well educated and trained in various job skills are less likely to be involved in crime. 

References 

Cook, P. J., Gottfredson, D. C., & Na, C. (2010). School crime control and prevention.  Crime and Justice ,  39 (1), 313-440. 

Deutsch, W. (2019). Environmental Design and Its Impact on Crime Prevention. Retrieved 30 November 2019, from https://www.thebalancesmb.com/crime-prevention-through-environmental-design-394571 

Liberman, A., Fontaine, J., Ross, M., Roman, C. G., & Roman, J. (2010). Strategic Plan for a Collaborative Neighborhood-Based Crime Prevention Initiative. 

Plant, J. B., & Scott, M. S. (2009).  Effective policing and crime prevention: A problem-oriented guide for mayors, city managers, and county executives . US Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. 

Shaw, M. (2010).  Handbook on the crime prevention guidelines: Making them work . United Nations Publications. 

Tillyer, M. S., Fisher, B. S., & Wilcox, P. (2011). The effects of school crime prevention on students’ violent victimization, risk perception, and fear of crime: A multilevel opportunity perspective.  Justice Quarterly ,  28 (2), 249-277. 

Waller, I., & Weiler, D. (1985). Crime prevention through social development.  Ottawa: Canadian Council on Social Development .