The Garda will tomorrow present awards to companies throughout the State who have helped to promote building design that discourages anti-social behaviour.
The Crime Prevention through Environmental Design certificate will be officially launched by the Garda Commissioner Mr Noel Conroy tomorrow.
The scheme promoted by the Garda aims to prevent crime and to reduce the fear of crime in communities through more imaginative building and development.
Jointly devised by the Garda and the National Standards Authority of Ireland, the scheme encourages the building industry to adopt crime prevention measures in development design to help reduce opportunities for crime.
The recipients of the first certificates will include firms from Monaghan, Tipperary, Kerry, Clare and Wexford.
Inspector Pat McCabe of the Garda Crime Prevention Unit told ireland.comthat those who will be presented with certificates tomorrow had worked closely with the Garda in the development of new housing estates.
"We look at their plans and make recommendations purely from our experience as Garda officers," he said.
These recommendations involved, in many cases, minor design changes to the housing estates or apartment complexes to discourage anti-social behaviour.
They include designing open spaces so that they are overlooked by houses or apartments, so that there are no 'hiding' spaces or blackspots for potential anti-social behaviour or crime. Insp McCabe said this involved splitting areas into private, semi-private and public space.
"It's really a long-term investment," he said. "It does definitively work and the feedback from the people who live in these areas has been very positive."