Police, landlords target crime

PROVO — Better lighting in parking lots, better locks on doors and windows and some strategic landscaping can discourage a prospective criminal from targeting an apartment complex.

Provo police are so convinced of this that they launched a new program in January and provide incentives for landlords who take specific steps to create "defensible space" around their apartments.

Those steps include using the three-foot/seven-foot rule: All bushes and shrubs are no taller than three feet or have three feet of clearance under them, and all trees are trimmed with seven feet of clearance underneath.

"That way the landscape doesn't give attackers or peepers a place to hide," Provo police officer Darren Ringel said. "It opens up the visibility in the area."

Increased visibility improves "natural surveillance," the perception among potential criminals that they could be seen.

Provo is offering perks to apartment complexes that complete the multi-housing certification program — monthly statistical breakdowns of crimes and police calls at their properties, signs, and permission to advertise using a logo from the police department.

The certification process also includes an eight-hour seminar, a security assessment of a landlord's property and a crime-prevention social for tenants.

It all appealed to Stonecrest Management general manager Mark Johnson, who became a fan during the first eight-hour seminar offered by the city in January.

"The appealing thing is having the extra support from the police department," Johnson said. "We've never had any super-serious things happen at any of our properties, but we'll be grateful to have extra reporting of things happening at our Provo complexes we may not have been aware of, and future applicants and future residents will know that we approve of this program and are trying to be a crime-free zone."

Johnson said a one-hour segment of the seminar on detecting drugs and drug paraphernalia was another major benefit.

Ringel and fellow Provo officer Matt Siufanua don't hide the fact that some apartment complexes may need to spend a significant amount of money to add lighting to parking lots and sidewalks, adjust landscaping, change locks on windows and doors and add 180-degree eye viewers on doors to comply with the program's standards for what is called "defensible space" or "crime prevention through environmental design," or CPTED.