Integrating crime prevention through environmental design, geostatistical uncertainty and space syntax for public-space CCTV siting in Taichung, Taiwan

This article develops a conditional spatial decision-support framework for prioritising public-space closed-circuit television (CCTV) at street intersections. CCTV is treated as one possible intervention rather than the default response to crime concentration. The framework combines Voronoi crime-density mapping, a structured crime prevention through environmental design audit, kriging-based information-gap ranking, space syntax and a governance gate covering privacy, feasibility and maintenance. An archival two-year administrative dataset from the Shui-Nan Police Station District in Taichung, Taiwan, demonstrates the workflow. Crime concentrated along mixed-use arterial and neighbourhood commercial corridors, although offence-specific profiles differed. The fitted exponential semivariogram had a nugget of 0.04, total sill of 0.26 and range parameter of 154 m. The sequential ranking showed an information-coverage elbow after approximately 20 candidate sites; this result indicates diminishing geostatistical gain, not proven deterrence or detection effectiveness. Space syntax was used to describe movement context and route continuity, not to infer that highly integrated streets are inherently criminogenic. The contribution is a transparent decision logic that separates crime need, environmental vulnerability, spatial information coverage, network role and governance feasibility, and supports annual calibration and independent hold-out verification.