Performing Safety and Security Audits

Performing safety and security audits is an important step in facility management that often is overlooked, ignored, or continually delayed because it is viewed as an inconvenient exercise and an extra financial burden. The audit, however, is a critical component of an owner’s or operator’s activity because it protects against liability as well as providing a safer and more secure property. Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) is an excellent program developed initially as a tool for police officers to introduce to businesses that have been victimized by crime or as a proactive crime prevention tool. CPTED can be used to move people along intended paths by manipulating the environment with sightlines, flooring materials, walls and fencing, different leveled and textured walkways, lighting changes, and anything that subtly directs people along an intended path. Well-designed CPTED spaces can remove that comfort level from the criminal and give it back to the business owner/operator and the paying client.