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Worrying about crime can affect people’s mental and physical health, and lead to them avoiding going out. This in turn could actually increase crime rates due to there being fewer ‘eyes on the street’.
The EU-funded CITY.RISKS project has developed a core platform with a risk management and response engine (RMRS) application and a data repository, a mobile app and web portal for users, a web-based operation centre for operators such as police departments, and theft detection services. These innovations work together to protect people and provide assistance when crimes are committed.
By sharing information with the public on crime-related matters and enabling them to participate in improving security, the system can engender a sense of confidence, paving the way for safer cities across Europe.
‘CITY.RISKS provides local authorities with tools not only to protect and control but also to empower citizens,’ says project coordinator Socrates Costicoglou of Space Hellas in Greece. ‘These technologies provide new ways of staying and feeling safe through active participation in online information sharing. When more and more people get involved, they change behaviour and create safer cities and inclusive public spaces.’
Incident reporting
The core platform saves all data generated by CITY.RISKS services and connects spatial information with reported incidents, while the RMRS application receives and filters user-generated information. It then creates alerts to be sent to users and operators.
The data repository stores content generated by users and external sources, including crime statistics from law-enforcement agencies and maps from open sources. It provides data for safe routing services, of which CITY.RISKS has three: one based on historical information; another to help users avoid current incidents; and a third to help guide users from where an incident is occurring to a safe place.
Access to the safe routing services comes through the mobile app, which provides text and multimedia incident reports. Real-time reports and safe routing can also be accessed through the web portal, where users can find out about safety in their own or other cities.
CITY.RISKS’ operation centre is easily integrated with local and national authority and private security firm systems to provide an overview of the safety situation in a given city and to receive reports. A simulation engine enables operators to test a city’s responses to typical types of incident.
Another innovation, a theft detection sensor, traces stolen objects through a network of CITY.RISKS users. Items are fitted with sensor tags so that if they are stolen the owner informs the authorities who activate the network.
Participants use the mobile app to scan tags and report the location of the item to the operation centre. A simulator evaluates different strategies regarding how many and which users to activate when searching specific areas.
A versatile platform
A significant advantage of the platform is its versatility. ‘CITY.RISKS can be combined with video-surveillance networks and other public and private security systems, as well as vehicle-mounted and portable solutions, to keep watch for incidents of theft, disturbance and unauthorised access,’ Costicoglou explains.
‘We can also target niche markets, such as telecom operators, security companies, university campuses, shopping centres and NGOs. In such cases, the services are tailored to the requirements of that market and individual components can be supplied, rather than the whole platform,’ he adds.