Solid high walls may pose a high risk

It stands to reason that the higher your perimeter walls, the safer you will be, right? Following a recent research study conducted by Monique Marks, head of the Urban Futures Centre at the Durban University of Technology, high walls will not necessarily make suburbs safer.
For many years, Marks had been overwhelmed by the high walls that South African suburbanites had created around their dwellings, convinced that these walls, which were supposedly created to make people safer, were actually having the opposite effect. So she decided to investigate. As a criminologist by training, Marks had worked with police officers and security guards over many years and reached out to a member of the Durban Metropolitan Police, Chris Overall, to get her project kick-started.

Two suburbs, walls apart

South Africa is renowned for having a very high rate of violent crime. By way of illustration, by the mid-1990s, South Africa’s murder rate was six times higher than that of America and 20 times higher than that of Britain. Since 1995, South Africa has ranked in the top six countries for violent crime. As a response to the surge of crime, particularly violent crime, suburban dwellers began to fortress their homes. Housing was designed with the aim of keeping intruders out by means of constructing increasingly high walls and erecting electrified fences and beams.
In light of this fortification, Marks decided to determine whether this response has had the intended result: has it reduced crime victimisation?
Their first step was to compare crime rates – particularly for violent crime, such as armed robbery and hijacking – in two Durban suburbs; this is the second most populous city in South Africa. One of the suburbs they studied, Umbilo, is not characterised by high walls. Often referred to disparagingly as “Scumbilo,” it’s a lower middle-class area with a slightly grimy appearance. The other suburb was Westville, which is strikingly walled in comparison, and is viewed as a more desirable place to live.
These two suburbs were selected following conversations with members of both public and private policing agencies in Durban. The South African Police Services, the city’s Metro Police and private security companies Blue Security and ADT all became partners on this project. Marks and Overall spent a few months in 2014 studying incident reports from the two areas, and also joined police and private security firms on their day and night patrols in both areas. They witnessed incidents first hand and noticed that violent crime was far more common behind high walls in Westville than it was in Umbilo. Their observations were reinforced by reading through incident reports and talking to the police while they were on patrol.

Walls are policing nightmares

Through their experience and expert knowledge the police had come to view solid, high walls as “policing nightmares”.
Organised criminals always look for ways to be hidden from sight; walls are perfect for this purpose and prevent patrolling officers from knowing what’s going on inside a property. This detracts from the value of patrols as a form of crime prevention and rapid response. Walls can also become a defence for criminals: they’re given the freedom to conduct their activities without being seen from the street.
In addition, according to private security officers, walls makes homeowners feel trapped once an intruder gained access to their property, and they are then delayed in alerting the relevant emergency services. Walls also prevent those inside from seeing what is happening on the outside. High walls mean that reaction officers can’t easily get onto a property – this often limits them to only be able to do a perimeter check, which is very frustrating for these officers who are trying to protect people. There’s also the very real possibility that patrol officers will be caught unawares by home intruders who are already inside targeted properties.

Beyond walls?

Marks’ research has received a huge amount of public attention and sparked debates in a country where high walls are ubiquitous. These debates have centred not only on physical walls, but on the interconnected metaphysical walls that suburban dwellers have created.
Feedback from discussions was that people feel compelled to live behind high walls as these are the only “defensive” structures they are aware of. They are also afraid that, should they be the one house on the street without a wall, they will immediately be targeted by criminals. However, almost unanimously, people were nostalgic for times when they lived without walls and were envious of places where walls do not exist. During public forums and radio shows a number of people claimed that they were going to “experiment” with taking down their walls, backed by the evidence that walls are not necessarily generating the safety that is desired.
Perhaps the most exciting and real life outcome is that one of Durban’s most visible and active cultural centres, the Alliance Française de Durban, has decided to literally break down its existing high boundary wall. It will be replaced with a boundary that generates security and engagement, and builds neighbourliness. The KwaZulu-Natal Institute of Architecture published an expression of interest advert for the Alliance Without Walls project in May this year. The final new boundary structure will be designed and constructed by December 2016.
For Marks, this is one important step on the road to imagining cities without walls.
The full original opinion article can be found here.