Application of safe and sustainable places features to improve security in urban spaces: the case of Sanandaj city center

Urban spaces, as arena for everyday life of all citizens, were influenced by some environmental factors which increased crime-prone areas and then affect the level of people’s presence in public spaces. In this regard, the city centers which contained the primary domain for public places and urban spaces because of its valuable cultural and historical assets faced with major challenge of crime. This creates a kind of negative sense of security in urban spaces of these areas. In recent decades, the concept of Place-Based crime Prevention has been developed by environmental design strategies to develop safer and sustainable communities and improve people’s quality of life in urban areas. In this regard, this paper aims to investigate the city center of Sanandaj using place-based crime prevention principles particularly the principles of “safer and sustainable places” to present and prioritize the strategies, policies and action plans to enhance safer urban spaces and quality of life in this part of the city. The findings show that among critical principles of “Safer and Sustainable places”, Access and movement, Management and maintenance and Structure have the most significant role in regeneration of urban spaces in the city center of Sanandaj. Also to achieve the best results, the people’s participation is essential in the process of application of these recommendations. In addition, a legal framework is required to facilitate this approach for the whole city. The police in particular have a key role to play in working with the public and communities to prevent and control crime, through community-oriented policing, working parties and similar approaches that encourage consultative and collaborative arrangements between police and citizens.