Smart cities and security – a preventive approach

According to the International CPTED Association, Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) is defined as a multi-disciplinary approach to deterring criminal behavior through environmental design. CPTED strategies rely upon the ability to influence offender decisions that precede criminal acts by affecting the built social and administrative environment. The web platform described in this paper uses information about the built and natural environment, geolocated in a map, to produce valuable information to statistical analysis and decision making. The platform will allow authorized users to input information, free text and pictures to classify geographical spots and to create different kinds of outputs. Due to the nature of the data stored, citizens, policy makers, and other stakeholders would need a clear ethical and legal framework to produce and make use of the data and of CPTED itself. This paper also discusses some of the legal issues that may arise.