Urban Security in the last 30 years: an upcoming in-depth analysis

This strand of the IcARUS project aims to provide an in-depth analysis of urban security in Europe over the last 30 years with particular regard to the four priority areas of: preventing juvenile delinquency; preventing radicalisation leading to extremist violence, countering organised crime and trafficking at local level, and designing and managing safe public spaces.

This ambitious and wide-ranging review of learning from innovations in practices, policies and research aims to provide useful tools and strategies for implementation across cities. It will help identify barriers to implementation and opportunities to overcome these. The review will draw upon the existing knowledge base and complement this with a focus on the application and translation of knowledge into concrete and deliverable practices. It will do so through a systematic literature review, interviews with key experts and analysis of city-level innovations, with particular attention to the four priority areas.

Aims and tasks

While the overall goal of the project is to provide urban security strategies for European cities, the second phase of the IcARUS project is concerned with providing the knowledge base and learning from which to determine best practices, tools and institutional barriers concerning urban security issues. This critical review will then work to inform a roadmap for the improvement and definition of tools to be used throughout this project. This will provide a solid base from which future tools and strategies can be developed and their implementation advanced and assessed in ways that produce real value to urban security stakeholders.

Currently, we are working on a state-of-the-art review that will focus on specific criteria including:

• How policy has evolved over 30 years;
• How prevention policies have responded to (new) challenges and identifying institutional barriers to their implementation;
• Gaps in knowledge;
• Successful/unsuccessful case studies within municipalities.

Initially, our focus has been on defining a shared understanding of some key concepts that will inform the review, the aim being to establish a common working language for all partners involved in the project. As the initial scope of the IcARUS project establishes a broad area of research, we have sought to delimit the parameters of the review in appropriate and manageable ways. The key terms we have chosen to focus our initial efforts on are: urban security, crime prevention strategies, multi-stakeholder partnerships, preventing juvenile delinquency, preventing radicalisation, preventing and reducing organised crime and trafficking, and managing public spaces.
These terms seek to identify and clarify a common understanding/use of key concepts and terminology related to the tasks by ensuring the following:

• To clarify the parameters of the conceptual framework within which we are working.
• To make choices about what is and what is not in the scope of the Review.
• To develop a common definition and glossary for use in the data collection for the Review.
• To make the task of the Review both manageable and founded on the basis of a shared understanding.
• To give the four priority areas greater focus around the city-level delivery of urban security through multi-stakeholder partnerships.
• To ensure the utility and value of the Review for the intended beneficiaries and end-users.

Furthermore, we will develop a common glossary of terms to ensure that all partners and sectors have the same, shared understanding.

Ongoing work with partners

In order to understand the intended beneficiaries of the review and the urban contexts in which any strategies and tools are to be implemented, and in keeping with the human-centred design approach, we have sought to establish a clear overview of the needs and priorities of each of the six cities that are part of the IcARUS consortium:

• Lisbon, Portugal
• Nice, France
• Riga, Latvia
• Rotterdam, Netherlands
• Stuttgart, Germany
• Turin, Italy

To this end, we have surveyed the expertise and experiences of each city through desk research and in-depth meetings with key representatives from each city.

Working methods for review and data collection

Our task of conducting the Review presents a complex and broad challenge, as it aims to consider the policy and practice innovations on a city level in Europe over the past 30 years. We expect this task broadly to consist of the following: 1) under standing the cities, 2) general literature review, 3) review of policy and practice innovations at the city level across Europe, and 4) data collection and analysis.

1. Understanding the cities

We will work with our six city partners to better understand the development needs in relation to each city and identify shared/common challenges, with particular regard to: the organisation and operationalisation of urban security; innovations in crime prevention strategies in the four priority areas; and existing multi-stakeholder partnership relations.

2. General literature review

A systematic review of major approaches of crime prevention as applied to urban security in the four priority areas will cover: types of theories; shifts in crime prevention models/prevalent theories; types of evidence-based research and best practices/interventions used in the past up to now, and what criminogenic factors have been considered.

3. Review of policy and practice innovations at the city level across Europe

The Review will seek to identify criteria for the cross-analysis of policies and practices (e.g. common models, strategies, and methods used to enhance urban security; indicators to respond to insecurity/crime surge; security plans/crime prevention structure; institutional barriers, knowledge gaps, factors contributing to failure).

4. Methods of Data collection

Data will be collected with the following methodologies:
• Analysing existing databases;
• Interviews with key experts and stakeholders
within and beyond the Consortium);
• Focus groups/Round tables;
• Literature review.

The review will include both qualitative and quantitative analysis in order to measure successful urban security outcomes. Quantitative types of analysis will consider crime rates including displacement/reduction levels, while qualitative data will likely focus on feelings of security/insecurity at a community level, or other types of interview or survey-based data.

Next steps

We expect to begin our literature review starting in November 2020 and continuing until June 2021, while our data collection will take place from January 2021 to approximately August 2021 and commencing our data analysis in June 2021. The global Covid-19 has obviously an impact on our work as we cannot conduct in-person interviews and focus groups, but we will move these activities online for the time being.

Combining methodology and innovation: the IcARUS approach

Innovation is at the core of IcARUS’ mission and vision. The planned approach is both novel and original and will be central to the project’s development every step of the way. How are the project partners shaping such a cutting-edge approach? How are they planning its adoption and application? In recognizing the relevance of the scope of IcARUS, involved partners are currently working to devise a cutting-edge approach to be fine-tuned throughout the project.

Innovation at the heart of IcARUS

One of the main goals of the EU’s Horizon 2020 research programme is to tackle societal challenges by removing barriers to innovation, thus facilitating the delivery of original solutions by public and private actors alike. As part of Horizon 2020, the IcARUS project recognizes that innovation is central to its development.

The project’s main goal is to produce a multi-stakeholder approach to tackle urban security issues. To achieve this, the project partners are devising a methodology that examines problems from different perspectives and imagines solutions from unusual viewpoints. In a spirit of innovation, the IcARUS methodology is being designed through the Design Thinking approach, which involves a strategic process for achieving meaningful and innovative solutions.

Although not fully conceptualized, Design Thinking can indeed be a strategic approach to public policy issues. Why? First, it embraces the perspectives of both policy and decision makers. This results in a strong focus on cognitive processes and conceptual knowledge in order to detect areas that need attention and generate alternative solutions. Secondly, the approach is human centred. Instead of considering that end-users are (as the name implies) “at the end” of the ideation and implementation process, Design Thinking puts them right in the centre. As IcARUS develops, the focus on end-users and their continuous feedback will inform an effective and innovative strategy for public policy.

Understanding how issues are perceived by those they affect

Long used in the private sector, the Design Thinking application has also informed many successful public policies aimed at tackling societal problems. In essence, Design Thinking proposes to understand how issues are perceived by those who are directly affected by them and to think outside the box in order to create better and alternative solutions. A significant aspect of this process is that public policies or strategies are co-designed together with the end-users. This co-production approach is reflected in the diverse and international team that composes the IcARUS consortium. In fact, the solutions that IcARUS will develop will be the result of a shared understanding of problems and of close collaboration between all the partners.

The Design Thinking process places end-users at the core of the strategy for reaching innovative solutions, and so does IcARUS. The envisioned methodology will be strongly focused on those who are directly affected by urban security issues and those who will implement the proposed measures. Our project’s methodology places citizens, police officers, municipalities, law enforcement agencies, and other related actors at the centre of this collaborative effort to reach truly effective solutions to urban security issues.
The partners will produce a preliminary methodological approach by the end of the year. The methodology will then be constantly updated and fine-tuned through end-user feedback and testing throughout the duration of the four-year project.

A method that is easy to understand and apply

Co-creation is thus envisioned through constant feedback from the consortium and is ensured by numerous opportunities for exchanging ideas and strategies. It is not the first time that Design Thinking has been applied to re-shape public policies. Indeed, there are plenty of examples, and not only in academic literature, of how appropriate methodologies have been designed to tackle societal problems. The project will thus examine a series of relevant examples of methodologies, including how they were implemented, and based on this analysis structure its own, original method.

It is paramount for the method to be common: it needs to be fully understood by partners and especially end-users, such as municipalities, since they will have to implement it. Thus, the proposed method has a twofold aim: to be easy to understand and easy to implement. So how can we ensure the success of the methodology? As the Design Thinking approach outlines, it is important to go back to our users when a suitable idea is generated or tested. The language used, the tools provided, and the approach envisioned need some form of ‘approval’ by those who will be using the method in the end. Hence, in the IcARUS project, feedback is not just a concluding phase of the process with minimal relevance. Instead, it is a valuable tool that is not placed “at the end” of the strategy, but rather at its very core.

Welcome to The IcARUS Project

The Innovative AppRoaches to Urban Security (IcARUS) project promotes coordinated and integrated strategies and forward-thinking solutions to address delinquency and crime at the local level in European countries.
The main objective of the project is to provide local authorities and urban security practitioners with an approach that comprises preventive, evidence-based and sustainable measures to counter the causes and effects of criminality. IcARUS will deliver concrete outcomes involving reviewed and adapted practices as well as refined tools that are applicable to specific local contexts. By designing custom-made technologically and socially innovative methods and tools, IcARUS will strengthen the capacities of local authorities to anticipate and better respond to emerging security challenges.
At the beginning of the project, a state-of-the-art review of policies and methods in the field of urban security within the last
30 years will be conducted on four areas that local authorities have identified as their major security challenges:

• Preventing juvenile delinquency

Juvenile delinquency poses a significant concern for policy makers as well as for society as a whole. Multiple factors can lead young people to engage in delinquency/delinquent acts, such as the social environment, individual development, lack of confidence in the future and feelings of marginalisation. As young people constitute a vulnerable target group, local authorities have to develop comprehensive policies that promote social inclusion and avoid the social, economic and political marginalisation of youth. Instead of perceiving young people solely as potential danger to security, policy makers need to recognize them as drivers of social progress and thus include them in their crime prevention strategies. IcARUS will focus on innovative approaches to prevent juvenile delinquency that foster inter-generational dialogue and enhance social inclusion of young people.

• Preventing radicalisation leading to violent extremism

Terrorism and extremist violence are a significant security threat to European countries. Tackling radicalisation at the local level requires assessing of its causes and risk factors as well as analysing local threats and potential vulnerabilities within communities.  In order to prevent local radicalisation processes that lead to violent extremism, local authorities need to foster social inclusion, youth participation and dialogue. Therefore, a comprehensive local strategy to tackle radicalisation engages multiple local stakeholders, agencies and representatives of local communities

• Designing and managing safe public spaces

Public spaces are first and foremost spaces of coexistence, cohesion and a meeting point for different social groups and citizens in general. Well-designed and inclusive public spaces can match the needs of their everyday and one-time users and promote social inclusion, integration and participation. Local authorities need to assess the potential vulnerabilities of urban public spaces linked to the emergence of conflict, insecurity or negative use of these urban areas. Mitigating such vulnerabilities requires an integrated approach that fosters the integration of minorities and vulnerable communities.

• Preventing and reducing trafficking and organised crime at the local level

Organised crime poses a complex challenge to local authorities, especially with regard to the globally connected nature of organised crime groups that operate and manifest themselves locally. As organised crime is constantly transforming, it is crucial for local authorities to understand how organised crime-type associations can also emerge in non-traditional areas. The prevention and reduction of organised crime demands policies and practices that strengthen the capacities of local and regional authorities to collect data and monitor organised crime activities. In addition, information-sharing and cooperation processes between local regional and national authorities must be accelerated. Comprehensive policies should focus on the empowerment of vulnerable communities that are susceptible to being targeted by organised crime. Local authorities need to develop strategies that promote a culture of legality, include initiatives representing multiple segments of society and reinforce relations between municipal institutions, local businesses and local citizens.

These focus areas will also be examined in the light of four cross-cutting issues of: governance and diversification of actors, technological change, gender approaches, as well as internationalisation and cross border issues.
Practices and tools that respond to each of these focus areas will be revised, designed and adapted as well as implemented, tested and evaluated in six European cities.

Following this, concrete practices and tools will be selected, (re-)designed and adapted through an iterative and collective process of testing, implementation and evaluation. This will ensure that the tools are effective and meet the collective needs of citizens. The cities of Lisbon, Nice, Riga, Rotterdam, Stuttgart and Turin will be involved in all stages of the project, providing their perspective and knowledge as co-producers and end-users of all tools and practices.
The consortium is coordinated by Efus and comprises six European cities, universities and research institutions, and civil society and private sector organisations. Thus, the IcARUS project strengthens the link between academic knowledge and crime prevention practices and promotes the co-production of integrated strategies for urban security policies.

Context of the IcARUS project

The IcARUS project stresses the necessity of a multi-level and multi-stakeholder approach to the development and implementation of urban security policies. It also addresses the need to develop socially and technologically innovative solutions to emerging urban security challenges in the context of three broader challenges:

• The decline of confidence in public institutions and public policies

Several factors have contributed to increasing distrust of national governments and EU institutions, but economic conditions linked to austerity programmes, high unemployment rates, globalisation and technological change in particular have all had an impact on people’s confidence in public institutions. To reverse this trend, policy makers will have to respond with integrated approaches fostering inclusive and secure environments for citizens and society as a whole. The development of comprehensive security strategies involves the consideration of its human, social and societal aspects, as well as the enhanced promotion of citizen participation.
Local authorities are particularly well placed to play a key role in coordinating local public policies that take into account all relevant stakeholders, and to adopt strategies that are centred around the collective needs of citizens.

• Drastic cuts in public funds that reduce the resources to implement public policies

Contemporary budget restrictions demand new solutions to societal challenges that include cross-disciplinary and inter-institutional approaches through knowledge, resource and asset sharing. In particular, the adoption of prevention strategies to tackle the causes and effects of crime has a cost-effective impact.

• The increasing interconnected nature of cities (smart cities)

In light of the major technological transformation in our societies, law enforcement agencies and policy makers need to adapt to digital and communication innovations and attentively integrate them into their
strategies. Even though they can also be used for criminal or malevolent aims, new technologies provide exciting opportunities to meet citizens’ demands and needs, not only with regard to social policies, but also in the area of safety and security. The adoption of smart-governance solutions and socially innovative methods are key components of integrated urban security policies.