Defense department strategy for protection of assets is a kind of military strategy sometimes referred to as an elastic defense strategy. This strategy aims at delaying rather than preventing the advance of the attacker, buying time and causing more casualties by creating additional space. The concept of defense strategy for the protection of assets is now broadly used to describe non-military strategies.
The defense-in-depth strategy is aimed at concentrating and converging all the military resources at a given point such that when attacked all defenders would be outflanked surrounded leaving the supply lines vulnerable. The other feature and characteristic of defense depth strategy in asset protection are that the defense is supposed to deploy his resources like a fortification, fieldwork and military units at and in good position behind the front line. The defense-in-depth strategy is very much effective and efficient especially against an attacker who can concentrate his forces and attack a small number of places on an extended defensive line. A highly established and planned defense in depth strategy normally deploys forces in mutually supportive positions and prescribed functions and duties. For example, poorly trained soldiers are always taken to static defenses at the front line while well and highly trained soldiers who are equipped form a mobile reserve. By making the poorly trained troops in frontline and better-trained ones in mobile reserve will bring a lot of advantages in the military defense. Different layers have been formed with different names for example a row of dragons teeth may be a problem for tanks but no barrier to infantry. Therefore defense in depth allows defenders to maximize the defensive tactics and skills of natural terrain.(Jacob,1961,p.36).
One disadvantage of defense in depth strategy in providing physical security is that at times approaches may not be accepted for a defender to plan and to give ground to an attacker. There is also defense in non-military. This includes defense in depth strategy to fire prevention which requires the provision of fire alarms, fire extinguishers, evacuation plans, mobile rescue, and fire fighting equipment. Since the nation is at war, it is very important to know the enemy in and out. Again the strength and weaknesses of the defense-in-depth strategy should also be looked at. The following are some of the strengths and weaknesses of this strategy. The first and most important one is to know the enemy. This is supposed to be done to know possible threats and risks both external and internal ones. The enemy is to be identified and if possible different weapons that it might use during the war should also be detected. This is what happened during the Islamic terrorism that happened in September the year two thousand and one. The other strength understands the external enemies. The strategy has included the use of the Internet to know the enemies. The external enemies or attackers include individual attackers manually probing and penetrating the networks as well as highly automated attacks such as worm programs. The strategy has not been capable of providing defense against such enemies. Concentrating on the perimeter builds a false sense of security by leaving the attackers to come inside. Protecting outside is not the whole solution because the internal attackers should also be checked. Therefore, for effective implementation of the defense-in-depth strategy for the protection of assets, it is important to address the following issues: knowing the enemy, understanding the external enemies, defending against an internal enemy, and knowing the environment.(Jeffry,1997,p.78).
Crime protection through environmental design approach offers security-training principles with a view of controlling crime. It changes people’s feelings about their environment therefore it is a multidisciplinary strategy to deterring criminal behavior. Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) relies heavily on the ability to influence the offender’s decisions that precede criminal acts. It emphasizes facilitating the perceived risk of detection and apprehension. This is because the most implementation of crime protection through environmental design is based on the theory that the proper effective design and proper effective use of the built environment can reduce crime. The strategy is also believed that it can reduce the fear of crime occurrence and improvement in the quality of life. When an environment is properly built as subjected by crime prevention through environmental design, it will make the offenders withdraw or stop committing crimes by avoiding the environment in which these crimes do occur. The most common built-in environment approaches may include neutral access control, natural territorial reinforcement, and natural surveillance. Other elements of crime prevention through the environmental design approach are the maintenance and activity support aspects. These are the main properties and characteristics of crime prevention through environmental design. (Mathew, 1996, p98).
Natural territorial reinforcement promotes and encourages social control through the increased definition of space and improvement in property concerns. Therefore this means that the environment should be properly redesigned to create a sense of ownership. The owner of a given place and property should have the responsibility of preventing strangers or intruders from committing a crime. They might do this by reporting the case to the police for appropriate action to be taken. An environment where strangers or intrudes can easily be pointed out and located is proposed to be the best according to the natural territorial reinforcement principle. Marking territories by the use of buildings, fences pavements, or providing security lighting to mark and express ownership. Buildings should be visible enough and fences raised to prevent strangers and intruders from committing the crime.(Wood,1967,pp:34-45).
For effective territorial reinforcement to stop and prevent crimes, individuals are therefore urged to restrict private activities to defined private areas. Social activities also need to place in an area common to all the public. The social activities may include shopping centers, bars, and restaurants and could be music areas. By doing use more people are attacked and therefore increase the perception that these areas are controlled. The use of territorial reinforcement measures makes the normal user feel protected and makes any offender aware of risks of apprehension or scrutiny.
Natural access control is another characteristic of crime prevention through environmental resign strategy (CPTED) to maintain security. The approach limits the occurrence of any crime by ensuring that appropriate measures and procedures are taken to substantiate and differentiate between public space and private space. This is normally done by fixing fences, improving the lighting systems, and placing entrances like gates and landscapes that can limit any movement and access to a given place. The following are some of the features of natural control access: we have the use of a single, clearly identifiable point of entry. For example, by having a single gate in a compound fence any stranger will be automatically identified. The gate should also be placed in such a way that the intruder cannot access the compound. Fences such as an electric fence, thorny bushes to fence the compound are also very useful. The fence should also be high enough to avoid any access to the compound. In the front yard, waist-level picket type of fencing along residential property lines is necessary to present any access and to encourage surveillance. Natural access control is used mostly to complement and supplement the mechanical and operational access control strategies and procedures such as target hardening.
The other feature of crime prevention through the Environmental Design approach to security is natural surveillance. The natural surveillance strategy was developed to promote and increase the threat of apprehension by having measures that can enhance the world view of identifying people. This takes place when the appropriate design is made. The design may include placing physical features like a rock or stones. Activities that are carried out by people should also be placed in an area where visibility can be properly maximized. This approach will promote social interaction among legitimate users of private and public spaces. By doing this, the potential offenders feel increased scrutiny and limitations on routes which they use to escape. The natural surveillance approaches include placing windows to face areas where people do pass so that the passers-by can easily be identified. Security Lights should also be properly placed so that an offender can easily be seen from far whereby the police can be alerted on the situation very fast. The passing vehicle traffic in most cases is proposed to be used as a surveillance asset. This has reduced the occurrence of crimes that occasionally do happen on our roads.
The other characteristic of crime prevention through environmental design or approach is based on maintenance of the environment and private property. The owner of a property should have full responsibility to ensure that his property is properly maintained. This ensures proper tolerance of order. This is best explained in the theory of broken windows, which support a zero-tolerance to property maintenance. The theory mentions that the broken windows will create some room and space for intruders to enter and vandalize a person’s property. Therefore to avoid this, all windows are to be fixed to ensure maximum security is provided. Not only broken windows are to be checked but also other areas that can make strangers get inside the compound. This is believed to be the responsibility of everybody (Oscar, 1972, p134).
Another property and characteristic of crime prevention through Environmental Design is the activity support. The activity support enhances the use of a built Environment for safe activities to increase the risk of detection of criminal and unwanted behavior.
The introduction of crime prevention through environmental design has led to the reduction of burglaries of commercial properties and improvement in quality of life. CPTED in industrial areas has also been implemented, for example in California when the focus was made on access control, reducing escape routes, improved signage, target hardening, improved lighting, CCTV, and nighttime security patrols. Vandalism has been greatly reduced and the occupancy rate of the industrial back has increased (Mathew, 1996, p.45).
In the field of public transport, the crime rate at bus stops has been reduced in countries like Los Angeles. A sustainable community should therefore perceive itself to be safe by applying the CPTED strategy of reducing crime. The application of the CPTED in crime prevention is increasing in the world of today. There is the confidence that comprehensive crime prevention through environmental design programs in the UK will highly improve the security system in the area.
Crime prevention through the Environmental Design approach to security will only be effective when it benefits the end-user. The security lighting has been of much importance to the principle of DID and ACCEPTED. In normal situations, artificial light at night tends to allow the fear of crime. Outdoor lighting also helps to prevent crime at night but it is yet to be proved. This makes the US have little confidence in the effectiveness of security lighting systems.
However, in many areas in Britain and America, lighting has helped to stop and prevent crime. For example, the placing of lighting in the multi-racial inner-city area of the UK has resulted in a reduction of robbery, theft from cars, burglaries, and vandalism unlike before when crime occurrence was too much at night. With the introduction of the Security Lighting System, there has been a serious reduction in crime in the UK city. The brighter lighting system has built some faith in the public to reduce crime.
The effects of the lighting system are either direct or indirect. For example, failure to put or switch on light affects transport and result in a high crime rate. When lights are switched on police can be easily alerted on the occurrence of crime from a distance by a neighbor where the activity is taking place owner’s properties are now protected from being stolen by thieves.
Since September 11, 2001, there has been a shift away from the application of crime prevention through Environmental Design to national infrastructure protection in the application of the Defense in Depth strategy. This occurred after the terrorism had taken place. First, it was expected that the CPTED approach was to be successful in reducing robberies. Though this happened, the methodological approaches that were used in the evaluation of the effects were not effective. The fires and burns also resulted in injury and death in the United States in 2001. The use of the smoke alarms was not effective in safe the situation. Therefore the reason for the shift was the Islamic terrorist threats. The other reason is to bring modifications that can reduce violence in the workplace. Homicide is one of the issues that led to traumatic death in the workplace, following transportation-related deaths. The majority of the homicides are results of robberies.
Therefore September 11, 2001, had devastating effects on the United States. It forced the government to bring security within the reach of the people both in law enforcement and private security. The shifts in the application have happened due to threat warnings. Most of these threat warnings are brought by Islamic terrorists and Hamas who may be living in the country.
The Racist skinheads also form a major violent element of the white supremacist movement and are mostly referred to as shock troops of the hoped-for revolution. Their activity has been identified in the white power music industry such as panzerfaust records and resistance records.
The Nazi Low Riders (NLR) is another issue. This is a violent gang that developed from former inmates of the California Youth Authority. The group gets themselves involved in dirty activities such as drug trafficking inside and outside prisons. The other group bringing attention to is Public Enemy Number One (PEN 1). Public Enemy Number 1 is the fastest-growing Caucasian prison gang operating in California prisons. They get their income from drug trafficking(Agel,1968,p94).
Threats of weapons of mass Destruction that are classified as chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or high yield explosives also have made the US have sleepless nights since 2001 September. The weapon of mass destruction attack on any of the states is believed that it can bring a great loss to the whole nation. The Bomb threat is another reason for the shift in the application of the mentioned strategies. The Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) or mail bomb is a method of terrorism shared by the natives and international terrorists. Unsophisticated criminals may at times use pipe bombs causing a lot of threats to the nation.
Violence at the place of work is another contribution to occupational injury and death. The following are some of the measures that have been taken to prevent any possible crime in the city. A lot of warning has been made to those receiving mails to handle them with a lot of care before opening. Fire procedures are also being formed to detect any possible cause of the fire by terrorists.
REFERENCE
Angel, S. (1968). Discouraging Crime through city planning. Center for planning as development research, University of California at Berkeley
Jacobs, J. (1961). The death of life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House
Jeltery, C. (1977). Crime prevention through Environmental Design. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publishers
Luedtke, G. (1970). Crime and the physical city Washington D.C: US Department of justice.
Oscar, N. (1972). Defensible space: Crime Prevention through urban Design. New York: Macmillan.
Matthew, B. (1996). The Theoretical Development of CPTED. New York: Springer Publisher.
Wood, E. (1967). Social Aspects of Housing in Urban Development, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nation, New York.
Crowe, T. (2000). Crime Prevention Trough Environmental design. Boston: Butterworth. Heinman