Vehicle Crime in the City Centre: Planning for Secure Parking

Vehicle crime is recognised as a serious problem to be tackled in city centre revitalisation strategies. Using an extensive database derived from police records for the city centres of Cardiff and Swansea, the paper focuses on the spatial and temporal distribution of vehicle crimes in different types of car park and location. Detailed analysis of the variations between multi-storey car parks offers support for the value of good design and upgrading, including closed circuit television (CCTV). A few unimproved multi-storey car parks display unusually high crime rates reflecting their specific locations, including their convenience for night-time use. Evidence on vehicle crime enables the targeting of resources to improve security in particular car parks at particular times when crime is most prevalent.