A Network on the Move - 1987-2017, Efus’ 30th Anniversary

A Network on the Move 1987-2017, Efus’ 30th Anniversary

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A Network on the Move 1987-2017, Efus’ 30th Anniversary

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Editorial Director: Elizabeth Johnston Concept and text: Nathalie Bourgeois Graphic design: Kris Kjellgard Illustrations: Juan Berrio Production manager: Margaux Rouillard Translation and proofreading: MM International Communication ISBN: 978 2 913181 63 2 Legal deposit: November 2017 European Forum for Urban Security 10, rue des Montiboeufs 75020 Paris, France Tél: +33 (0)1 40 64 49 00 contact@efus.eu - www.efus.eu

This publication was produced as part of the “Security, Democracy and Cities: Co-producing Urban Security Policies” conference organised by the European Forum for Urban Security, the City of Barcelona and the Government of Catalonia, on 15 to 17 November 2017, in Barcelona.

This publication is available free of charge for Efus members, in PDF version and in French and English, on the online platform Efus Network.

Table of contents The foundations....................................... p. 11 Cities helping cities.................................. p. 23 Exchanging ideas and practices................ p. 31 Europe and the world............................... p. 41 And tomorrow?........................................ p. 51

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Acknowledgements Our warmest thanks go to all those listed down here who contributed with their testimony to the creation of this book. We invite our readers to read the full version of all the contributions online.We are aware that these testimonies are but a small part of the numerous people who have collaborated with Efus over the years: due to lack of time and space in these pages we were unable to include more of them. We hope no one will feel offended. We invite you to send us your feedback so that we can add them to the online version.

Alioune Badiane, former Director of Programme and regional Director for Africa at UN Habitat

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Jean-Pierre Balduyck, Deputy, Honorary Mayor of Tourcoing Claudine Bansept, Secretary General of the European Forum for Urban Security from 1987 to 1990 Yvano de Biasio, former Director of Prevention and Security for the city of Charleroi (Belgium) Bertrand Binctin, former Deputy Mayor of Le Havre (France) in charge of security, former Vice-President of the French Forum for Urban Security and member of the Executive Committee of the European Forum for Urban Security

Radim Bureš, Deputy Director of Probation, Czech Republic Thierry Charlois, Project Manager for Nightlife for the city of Paris (France) Franco Corradini, Efus Vice-President from July 2008 to March 2014 Adam Crawford, Professor of Criminology and Crime Justice at the University of Leeds, Head of the Leeds Social Sciences Institute Juan Cristellys, Programme Manager at Efus Jean Daëron, City Councillor of Épinay-surSeine, from 1989 to 1995 Myassa Djebara, Programme Manager at Efus

Vasco Franco, former Deputy Mayor of Lisbon (Portugal), Vice-President of the Observatory for Security, Organised Crime and Terrorism in Portugal (Observatório de Segurança, Criminalidade Organizada e Terrorismo) Sohail Husain, Director of Analytica Consulting Services (United Kingdom) and expert with Efus Joana Judice, European Projects Officer at Efus Véronique Ketelaer, former Director at Bravvo, organisation in charge of crime prevention in Brussels (Belgium) Josep Lahosa, Director in charge of crime prevention services in the city of Barcelona (Spain), from 1986 to 2017 Claudia Laub, President of El Agora association, Córdoba, and sociologist at the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina) Éric Lenoir, Head of the Mission for Coordination of Interministerial and Sectoral Action at the French General Commission for Territorial Equality (Mission de coordination de l’action interministérielle et sectorielle du Commissariat général à l’égalité des territoires) Jacques de Maillard, Professor of Political Sciences at the University of Versailles SaintQuentin-en-Yvelines (France)

Gilles Mahieu, Governor of the Walloon Brabant province (Belgium) Nigel Mellor, former municipal officer at the City Council of Liverpool (United Kingdom), President of Emmaus Merseyside Carla Napolano, Deputy Director of EU Programmes and Network Life, Efus Melissa Pebayle, Programme management intern, Efus Bernard Rivaillé, Deputy Mayor of Lormont (France), Vice-President of the French Forum for Urban Security and member of the Executive Committee of the European Forum for Urban Security Frank Sina, Chief Executive of services, SaintHerblain (France) Jesús Solores, former Director of security for the cities of Pamplona and L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Spain) Irvin Waller, Professor of Criminology at the University of Ottawa (Canada) Chris Williams, Senior Prevent Advisor, Home Office, United Kingdom Anne Wyvekens, Research Director at the CNRS/ Institut des Sciences sociales du Politique (Institute of Social Sciences in Politics) (France)

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Foreword

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Founded in 1987 under the auspices of the Council of Europe, the European Forum for Urban Security celebrates this year its 30th anniversary. The Forum was created around a number of key ideas such as taking into consideration the feeling of insecurity caused by petty crime and the key role of mayors and local authorities in countering it on the ground. The idea that prevention is a suitable and efficient response and that security is a common asset to which not only justice and the police have to contribute, but also society as a whole. Finally, from the outset, the idea was to create a forum to discuss these questions across Europe in order to promote a common reflection and the sharing of best practices.

The Forum was born at a time when the European project was considered by the majority of European governments and citizens as a source of hope and progress, a major endeavour to which all could contribute. Today, the context is totally different. Europe, having evolved from 12 to 28 Member States in thirty years (and soon 27 after Brexit), is going through an existential crisis while its citizens express their loss of trust in its institutions, criticised for being aloof and disconnected from their concerns.

This dissatisfaction also concerns governing bodies in most European countries, where traditional political parties are being challenged by new grassroots movements that have appeared in recent years, which are not all “populist” but strive to imagine a more direct and bottom-up, rather than top-down type of democracy. The citizens’ longing to be better listened to and to be able to take action in their immediate environment also appears, survey after survey, through the trust they express towards local governing bodies such as town halls. This trend is perceptible across Europe and beyond.

In this context, the Forum acquires a new dimension as a space in which local representatives and technicians from Europe and beyond can exchange freely, free of any judgement and any political categorisation, about the challenges they are facing in terms

of urban security and how they respond to them. It aspires to be a means of support to local authorities and to provide a serene space where to exchange ideas and practices.

Likewise, it intends to develop new methodologies and approaches, to explore new themes and to define new professions in the fields of prevention and security.

Over the years, the Forum has gathered knowledge and experience which have led it to expand its scope of action and fine-tune its work as a platform for exchange and a tool for action for local authorities. This body of ideas and know-how has been built thanks to the input of hundreds of persons who are/were part of this network or who collaborated with it, for short periods or during many years, if not decades: local representatives from diverse political backgrounds, local authority practitioners, academics, researchers, representatives of the judicial system, the police, health-care, education, voluntary sectors, and representatives of the European and international institutions.

All these contributors also transmit the Forum’s complex, inclusive and dynamic vision within the organisations in which they hold office, be it town halls, ministries, administrations, universities or companies. Our organisation’s logo, the rhizome, visually expresses its nature as a dynamic, multicoloured and geometrically variable network, in which there are many and changing points of convergence.

With this book, our aim was to pay tribute to the Forum’s members and companions as well as to retrace in broad strokes the history of the key ideas and principles that have been driving it ever since its creation. Our aim was not to produce an academic study, but rather a portrait of the Forum as seen by those who made and make it. We hope you will enjoy browsing and reading through it. This book is yours.

Elizabeth Johnston Executive Director

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The foundations Summer 1981, two months after the historic election when the socialist François Mitterrand became President of the French Republic.

In the summer torpor, with great alarm, France suddenly became aware of its ghetto suburbs and the anger of the young French citizens of immigrant origin who are doubly penalised by unemployment and social exclusion. That summer, the Lyon suburb of Les Minguettes erupted: viewers saw young people on The real issue was their TV screens set fire to cars and clash violentnothing less than ly with the police. There had been other riots in analysing cities as the past (Vaulx-en-Velin in 1971, Villeurbanne in such and how certain 1976) but this was the first time in France that intense media coverage, particularly on television, had urban spaces concentrate and generate raised the profile of this sort of event.

Led by the Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy, the govsocial segregation. ernment reacted by laying the foundations for what would become “urban policy”. Mauroy started off in the traditional way (at least in France) by commissioning reports. However, although the method was proven what the studies were about was far less so: here the real issue was nothing less than analysing cities as such and in particular how certain urban spaces concentrate and generate social segregation, itself a potential source of conflicts. This was the first time that the government and French administration had identified “cities” as being a relevant area as such for them to understand and take action on a series of social problems which until then had been considered on a sectoral basis (education, employ-

Rotterdam: measuring the level of security in areas of the city From the early 1970s onwards, the Netherlands was the first European country to invest in regular studies on victimisation as an information source, independently from its police services. The City of Rotterdam (633,000 inhabitants) is a good illustration of this approach. The Rotterdam Safety Index set up in 1999 contains quantitative and qualitative data (interviews with residents) and on a scale of 1 (least safe) to 10 (most safe) it measures the degree of security in different areas of the city.

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ment, urban planning and so on) using a “silo” approach. So by autumn 1981, Bertrand Schwartz, a former Resistance fighter, École Polytechnique graduate, professor of education and member of the Economic and Social Council, had handed the Prime Minister a report on the professional and social integration of young people; meanwhile Gilbert Bonnemaison, Mayor of Épinay-sur-Seine, Deputy for Seine-Saint-Denis and Chair of the Mayors’ Commission on Security (Commission des maires sur la sécurité) was working at the same time on delinquency and in 1982 submitted his report tiAt the time, for tled Confronting Delinquency: Prevention, Repression and Solidarity, while French administrathe following year, Hubert Dubedout, Mayor of Grenoble, put forward: tion and institutions Remaking the City Together (1983)1. Three reports that were innovative because they dealt with issues using a project-based approach which this was a comwould get local residents involved and an overall, cross-sectoral vision pletely innovative which requires the authorities to intervene in an integrated, territorial approach. manner and not by category, in other words free of their administrative straitjacket and based on the varied, multiple needs and realities specific to each district2. Furthermore, this was the reason why these reports were submitted directly to the Prime Minister and not to a specific ministry: the government had decided to tackle the problems laid bare by the rioting in Les Minguettes in a comprehensive manner, which would nowadays be termed holistic.

At the time, for French administration and institutions this was a completely innovative approach. The diagnosis made by Schwartz, Bonnemaison and Dubedout is nowadays still considered as being the cornerstone of French “urban policy”. This approach has come to be regarded as France’s contribution to the field with its three key ideas that prevention is appropriate for countering routine crime, that it has to be carried out at local level and it has to get all the city’s stakeholders involved and not just the police and the law. Just as French Doctors also came to attention in the 1980s in the wake of Médecins sans Frontières, the talk was of the French crime prevention approach. This approach straightaway attracted interest from other European countries and authorities, and Gilbert Bonnemaison gave his work a European and international framework by on many occasions meeting mayors and representatives from European institutions,

1 Schwartz B., “L’insertion professionnelle et sociale des jeunes” (September 1981); Bonnemaison G., “Face à la délinquance: prévention, répression, solidarité” (December 1982); Dubedout H., “Ensemble refaire la ville” (January 1983), La Documentation française Publications.

2 Virginie Linhart, “Des Minguettes à Vaulx-en-Velin: les réponses des pouvoirs publics aux violences urbaines” (From Les Minguettes to Vaulxen-Velin: the public authorities’ response to urban violence), Cultures & Conflits, June 1992.

but also from Canada and the United States. (We shall return to the Forum’s European and international dimension in the fourth section, p. 41).

The Bonnemaison report: 64 recommendations for prevention

3 Refer to an interesting article published by the Centre d’étude de la vie politique française (Cevipof), “La délinquance de 1975 à 2000, évolutions des chiffres et des concepts” (Crime from 1975 to 2000, developments in figures and concepts) <www.cevipof.com/ DossCev/elec2002/ Enjeux/sebroch1. html>

Set up by the Prime Minister in May 1982, the Mayors’ Commission on Security brought together mayors from 36 French cities of various sizes. The Commission’s task was “to make an overall assessment and produce concrete recommendations which could stop the sense of insecurity from developing.” It was specified that “this had to be done by liaising closely with local and regional authorities, by always avoiding adopting an anti-youth stance and by promoting prevention, as the government had in mind to pursue educational measures in tandem with law enforcement.”

It is interesting to note here that the government used the term “sense of insecurity” which had been in vogue in France since around the mid-1970s (in 1976 there was TV news presenter Roger Gicquel’s famous introduction “France is afraid”). This was a period when the reality of insecurity was being debated3, however, what was innovative about the government’s position was that the sense of insecu- The title in itself anrity could be addressed because it was perceived as such by citizens and nounced a strategic was therefore real, whatever its roots and validity. programme: confrontSeven months later, the Commission submitted a report with a title which ing delinquency with in itself announced a strategic programme: confronting delinquency with prevention, repression prevention, repression and solidarity. In its introduction, Bonnemaison and solidarity. made clear that the Commission had set itself two constraints. The first was that it had chosen “to limit its assessment only to the role of crime in insecurity and to prevention” even if “crime is not the only thing that creates insecurity. Working in a factory under receivership makes people feel just as ‘insecure’ as does walking back at

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midnight to a home in the suburbs.” The second constraint was the type of crime: the Commission did not address organised crime or violent crimes but instead focused on crime affecting daily lives and “which directly concerned the mayors”. Accordingly it established that if “citizens’ security is the State’s responsibility, [...] it is nonetheless clear that preventing crime that affects the day-to-day lives of residents requires mayors to be actively involved. It is permitted by law; it is Several European countries, made essential by practice.” After working for several months, the especially Belgium, the NetherCommission formulated 64 concrete recommendations covering lands and the United Kingdom, social housing, urban planning, education, the police (both na- were likewise committed to tional and municipal), courts and preventing the consumption of making prevention part of their drugs and alcohol. In particular, it advocated that Crime Prevenpublic policy. tion Councils be set up immediately (Conseils de prévention de la délinquance) both within municipalities and départements, along with a National Crime Prevention Council (Conseil national de prévention de la délinquance), all responsible at their level for coordinating action aimed at preventing crime in a multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional way. In total, 571 Municipal Councils (Conseils communaux – CCPDs) were set up across France.

At the same time, these ideas were also taking off in Europe. Several European countries, especially Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, faced with similar challenges, were likewise committed to making prevention part of their public policy and to working to debunk responses that were solely punitive.

Barcelona: promoting inclusion of young people in latino gangs

The “Bonnemaison principles” central to the European Forum for Urban Security The three founding principles put forward by the Bonnemaison Commission are to champion the pre-eminent role of prevention in countering routine crime, to recognize that prevention is implemented most effectively at a local level driven by local politicians, and that security is a common good. The report states that “recent experiences prove that prevention, when it has minimal resources and most importantly political will that is determined to stop administrative practices being cumbersome and which can break down barriers, bring together Government departments, municipalities, and associations and make them work together, then tangible This prevention results are achieved, aspirations develop and new has to be applied wishes are kindled. Confronted with this problem as close as possible now seen from a new perspective, there is a need to adopt a new strategy and method for administrative to where the phenomenon of routine action.”

Moreover, this prevention has to be legitimately apcrime occurs. plied as close as possible to where the phenomenon of routine crime occurs, namely in those districts and cities where criminals operate and where citizens are, or feel they are, victims.

Finally, it has to be applied in a coordinated and concerted manner with public authorities at various levels and sectors and represent-

After 2000, latino gangs started to appear in Spain, which was a new phenomenon. In Barcelona, the Human Rights Institute of Catalonia, supervised by the municipal prevention services, instigated a project to promote social integration of the young people who belonged to the Latin Kings & Queens and the Ñetas by transforming both gangs into cultural associations. Despite the internal divisions between traditionalists and those in favour of this new initiative, there was an immediate drop in the number of conflicts and acts of violence between the two gangs. Both new associations have liaised with youth organisations and belong to the Federation of Latin American Associations of Catalonia (Fedelatina).

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atives from civil society working together. The Bonnemaison report states “therefore the municipality has to be the preferred place where prevention becomes operational. It is at this level that prevention work carried out in local districts on individuals who are on the verge of marginalisation, using convergent methods from the various administrative services and associations involved, will stand the best “Efus helped spread the key message chance of succeeding.”

These principles are central to the European Forum for Urban Security that when confront(Efus), set up five years later under Gilbert Bonnemaison, who by then ing crime, repres(1983) had become Chairman of the French National Council for the sion is not enough.”

Prevention of Delinquency (Conseil national de prévention de la délinquance – CNPD). “One of the Forum’s founding concepts was that security is everyone’s responsibility and is not to be left solely to the police and courts. This is where the idea of co-producing security comes from: it involves taking collective ownership, with civil society, of the notion of security in order to define it and implement it as close as possible to society’s grassroots level,” says Elizabeth Johnston, Efus Executive Director.

“In the wake of the 1982 Bonnemaison report, Efus helped spread the key message that when confronting crime, repression is not enough and that prevention is its essential corollary as part of a balanced, comprehensive and integrated approach. What is at stake at present is the ability to correctly balance these approaches while dealing with different time scales. Preserving social prevention (secondary and tertiary) is vital and equally important; it endeavours to tackle the underlying causes (especially social and educational causes) of crime and recidivism, in addition to situational crime prevention which essentially operates on the immediate circumstances when crimes are committed,” adds Éric Lenoir, Head of the Mission for Coordination of Interministerial and Sectoral Action at the French General Commission for Territorial Equality (Mission de coordination de l’action interministérielle et sectorielle du Commissariat général à l’égalité des territoires).

Josep Lahosa, first Head then Director of Prevention Services in Barcelona (Spain) from 1986 to 2017 and therefore one of the founders of Efus, points out that “in the 1980s, local authorities staked their claim, successfully moving into an area of jurisdiction which Governments used to consider – and still consider – as belonging to them: managing ur-

ban security. Efus and the cities that started this process succeeded in differentiating the debate between state’s security and citizens’ security, and to establish that concerning the latter, mayors had to be competent since it is intrinsically part of the well-being of citizens who reside in cities.”

The European Forum is set up under the auspices of the Council of Europe In 1986, the CNPD was invited to Strasbourg by the Council of Europe, to a parliamentary hearing on “Violence and Urban Insecurity: the Role of Local Policies” jointly organised with the Standing Conference of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (Conférence permanente des pouvoirs locaux et régionaux de l’Europe, which has since become the European Congress of Local and Regional Authorities – Congrès des pouvoirs locaux et régionaux de l’Europe).

This meeting reflected how European institutions had evolved as they increasingly drew inspiration from the ‘think globally, act locally’ approach which during all those years had been gathering strength. So while what was still the European Economic Community (EEC) was busy enlarging, its institutions were also attempting to value and listen more carefully to the local and regional authorities in its member countries.

This was a time when Europe was expanding: Greece joined the EEC in 1981, Spain and Portugal in 1986, and preparations were being made for the European Union,

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based on a project that was no longer about economics like the EEC, but fundamentally political and which would be instituted in 1992 by the Maastricht Treaty. “We were all profoundly European,” comments Claudine Bansept, Efus General SecreEuropean authortary from 1987 to 1990.

More specifically, European institutions, in particular the Council of Eu- ities were dealing rope and the Standing Conference of Local and Regional Authorities, could with similar probsee that European authorities were dealing with similar problems of petty lems of petty and and minor urban crime which were of growing concern to the populations. minor urban crime.

So those who attended the Strasbourg conference agreed that there was a need to set up an association which would bring European authorities together to tackle the challenges of urban security and insecurity looking beyond national borders and with a trans-European approach. In particular, three areas of work were earmarked: organising exchanges between cities on a European scale, gathering and disseminating national and local documents about local prevention policies and encouraging the academic world to become involved in discussing these policies through a European study centre.

A conference was organised a year later in Barcelona as part of the Council of Europe’s 4 Please refer to Claudine Bansept’s “European Campaign for Urban Renaissance”. Called “Urban Insecurity detailed account in in Europe” and attended by local councillors and a wide range of rep- the online version A conference was orresentatives from the law, the police, health services and associations of this publication: ganised in Barcelona www.efus.eu/30(800 participants in total), its objective was to examine the causes of ur- years as part of the Council of Europe’s “European ban insecurity in European cities, to share information, experiences and 5 Please refer to the existing solutions in order to deal with the problem and to look at joint Barcelona DeclaraCampaign for Urban approaches between European cities and regions and possible ways of tion, Conference of Renaissance” to exworking together4 5.

European Local and amine urban insecuri- Claudine Bansept continues: “We had a political vision for prevention Regional Authorities, International Constrategy. We had principles to guide us in developing national policy and ference “Preventing ty in European cities. support for local policies – in particular the belief that security and both Urban Insecurity in individual and collective freedom form the axis on which the policy has to be based. We Europe”, Barcelona, 17-20 November also thought that public order could be maintained through preventive policies. Finally, 1987, in the online we thought that the public needed to become involved with the policy and that it had to Appendices.

include the idea of participation and be run democratically.”

The European Forum for Urban Security (Efus) was officially constituted at this conference under the auspices of the Council of Europe.

In line with one of the conference’s recommendations, its mission is to promote the sharing of local prevention and urban security knowledge and good practices between cities across Europe.

A three-legged creature...

One of the notable features of this newly founded organisation is that it is a private, not-for-profit association operating a public service function. It is a free and independent network, which makes it fragile but gives it the flexibility which over the coming decades will allow it to continually accommodate the evolving requirements of local authorities, successive changes in government, the emergence of new challenges as well as the changing relationship The European that citizens develop with their institutions.

Forum for Urban The European Forum for Urban Security – which its members and partners rapidly ended up simply callSecurity was therefore in 1987 a ing the Forum – was therefore in 1987 a new political new political entity. entity, as much due to its nature as due to its function, which is based on the prevention/sharing between cities/Europe triptych. As soon as it came into being, the Forum proved difficult to pigeonhole. It is a network of European cities dealing with urban security, however, this definition does not cover everything it does or everything it is not.

The Forum provides support and technical assistance to its member

Paris: preventing risks from night-life drug use Following the example of other European cities (Barcelona, Brussels, Edinburgh, Zurich), Paris has been working since 2003 through its Fêtez Clairs programme to promote responsible drug use among night-time revellers. In particular, the programme includes training for night club employees, awareness campaigns aimed at nightclubbers, a network for sharing information about new risks (covering both drug types and uses), a study of prevention measures in other European countries and the building of a partnership and mutual trust between the police and night-time venues. Innovative when it appeared in various European countries in the early 2000s, this preventive approach to nightlife-related drug use is more widespread nowadays.

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authorities, whose annual subscriptions make up most of its budget (which the Forum as a non-profit body has always strived to keep as reasonable as possible); however, it is not a consultancy or audit body.

From the outset, it received support from national governments and operates in part thanks to European funds; however, it is not a public or parapublic institution dependent on a national government or on European institutions. It maintains working relations with many universities in Europe and beyond; however, it is not a research institute.

It delivers a wide range of training courses to municipality employees, either directly or as part of the European projects which it runs; however, it is not a training institute.

For three decades its works and action have indisputably influenced French and European prevention policies and the Forum is a space for impartial political dialogue which produces political positions in the form of resolutions and manifestos; however, it is not a political think tank. Or at least not only, since it is also an essentially pragmatic body which deals with what is happening on the ground.

The Forum has a rich, unique repository of good practices which it has been accumulating for thirty years from all over Europe; however, it is not an observatory. Over thirty years, more than 25,000 people have attended its international conferences, seminars and workshops; however, it is neither a regular conference nor It is a network of European cities dealing with an educational institution.

The Forum has published 62 books, available in several languages, on urban security, however, a wide range of urban security issues; however it is neither a publishing this definition does not house nor a specialist journal. cover everything it does Its members are first and foremost European territorial authorities; or everything it is not. however, since the beginning the Forum has been connected with the rest of the world, maintaining close ties with North America, Africa and Latin America.

It brings together local and regional councillors and officials to work with them; however, it also works with many academics and researchers, representatives from the law, police, health, civil society organisations as well as journalists and even artists.

It is managed by an elected Executive Committee, a political body which is representative of the diversity of countries and regions which comprise the Forum; however, it is the cities

who sit on the Committee (represented by their elected officials) and not personalities. The technical team which runs the Forum on a daily basis is small (varying between around ten to fifteen people from year to year); however, in the past three decades over a hundred or so project managers, interns and associate contributors from all over Europe have contributed to its work and helped shape Over a hundred or so project what could be termed its personality. leaders, interns and assoFinally, last but not least, the Forum is thirty years old, an age when youth and maturity combine, alciate contributors from all ready old but still new, experienced but still intent over Europe have contributed to its work and helped on innovating.

shape its personality.

Stuttgart: the House of Juvenile Law In order to effectively prevent youth crime as early as possible, the municipality of Stuttgart opened its House of Juvenile Law (Haus des Jugendrechts) in 2002.

Its mission is to mobilise all the institutions concerned to work with young first-time offenders (under 21) and help them get reintegrated into society. This means speeding up procedures leading to a possible sentence (105 days on average instead of 230 with the old system) and stepping in as early as possible once the first offence has been committed with the long-term goal being to reduce youth crime. It was the New York City Community Courts that inspired this system, which is piloted by the Stuttgart police service and managed by the municipality’s youth services.

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Cities helping cities “Cities helping cities” – this has been the European Forum for Urban Security’s credo and raison d’être since it was founded. “The Forum’s history is that of the men and women in charge of European cities such as Birmingham, Rotterdam, Barcelona, Épinay-sur-Seine, Turin, Lille, Marseille, Brussels and Lisbon, who, already linked through cultural exchanges or from competing on the economic front, shared a common belief: the belief that Europe has to be a Europe of its citizens. No political level represents citizens and residents better Like all ideas, this than the city level,” wrote Michel Marcus, Efus’ Execone did not come into utive Director from 1987 to 2011, at the Naples “Security, Democracy & Cities” international conference being ex nihilo but held in 20001. rather in a context When the Forum was founded in 1987, security where, in France as policies in Europe were widely seen as coming first in Europe, the idea and foremost under the jurisdiction of governments, of decentralisation the police and courts. No distinction was drawn between organised crime and petty and minor offences was gathering – moped theft, damaged letterboxes, routine violence momentum. and acts of vandalism in public spaces and so on. One of the ways in which the Bonnemaison-Dubedout approach was innovative was to examine routine crime which, whether real or feared, directly affects citizens, looking not only at the way the police and courts classify it (theft, mugging, public disorder and so on) but also at the 1 A Decade, place where it is concentrated: cities.

Naples, Efus, 2000. Like all ideas, this one did not come into being ex nihilo but rather in

Liege: preventing hooliganism Since the early 1990s, in partnership with the Fan Coaching association, the City of Liege (Belgium) has been operating a policy to prevent hooliganism around Standard Liege’s stadium. Expanded and reinforced over the years, this policy involves accompanying hard-core supporters to matches but also offering them educational support during the week (sporting, educational and cultural activities) and, if need be, help with getting reintegrated into the community.

This initiative has led to a drop in the number and seriousness of incidents. Many other cities grappling with the problem of violence in and around their stadiums have been inspired by what Liege is doing, which is part of the growing trend in Europe to offer football fans support. In 2011, the Fan Coaching association received the European Football Supporters Award, supported by UEFA, in recognition of its work.

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a context where, in France as in Europe, the idea of decentralisation was gathering momentum. The French government elected in 1981 enacted a series of reforms, the Gaston Defferre Laws, unprecedented in scale and scope since the 19th century. These aimed to bring citizens closer to decision-making centres, make local authorities accountable and give them new powers and foster the development of local initiatives2. Furthermore, in the 1980s when globalisation was beginning to emerge more or less throughout Europe and the western world, the idea of decentralisation, that is to say “think globally act locally”, was making headway.

International trade was expanding, Europe was enlarging economically and politically and the CNN channel which started in the United States in 1980 was bringing live contact with the world around the clock making the “global village” more real, a term coined by the Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan in the 1960s (and confirmed when the World Wide Web appeared in 1991). However, as a counterpoint to this a growing longing for A third element local identity appeared, and most importantly the idea that citizens expect helped boost the their governments to take concrete action at this local level. importance of citAs a corollary to decentralisation, the idea of local, participatory democracy was also making headway, and especially in Europe. Initially it was chamies compared with pioned by the green parties and other movements which emerged on the other governance 3 bodies: growing ur- fringes of the traditional political parties before winning over established parties and institutions throughout the 1980s and 1990s. So it was that banisation. in 1985, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, with which Efus has enjoyed a long-standing working relationship, adopted a fundamental text, the European Charter of Local Self-Government, the first multilateral legal instrument to define and protect the fundamental principles to which any democratic system of local administration must adhere. It came into force in 1988, and being a valid international treaty was ratified by the Council of Europe’s 47 Member States4.

A third element helped boost the importance of cities compared with other governance bodies: growing urbanisation – which has increased exponentially across the planet. In 1987, the year when the Forum was founded, a significant minority of the world’s population (41.9%) lived in cities; however, by 2008 this had increased to over 50% and today the ratio is 54%5.

In Europe, where urbanisation had taken off well before the planet as a whole, three quarters

2 Source: Prime Minister’s Services, Legal and Administrative Information Department (Direction de l’information légale et administrative, services du Premier ministre) (www. vie-publique.fr/politiques-publiques/ decentralisation/ lois-defferre) 3 Source: Local Direct Democracy in Europe, edited by Theo Schiller, Verlag, 2011 4 European Charter of Local Self-Government, 1985, Council of Europe. Source: https://rm.coe.int /168007a088 5 Sources: United Nations and World Bank

of the EU’s population now lives in cities or in their periphery6.

In 1992, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities went even further to include cities as providers of governance when it adopted the European Urban Charter, which for European institutions was a key stage in recognizing the urban phenomenon and drawing up a body of principles to transcend national policies and cover cities in all European countries. The first principle of the European Declaration of Urban Rights, included in this Charter, is security: European citizens are entitled to “a safe and secure town, free, as far as possible, from crime, delinquency and aggression”.7 In 2008, this Charter was updated and extended, in particular so that it included the notion of sustainability.8

6 Source: Eurostat (2014) 7 European Urban Charter, 1992, Council of Europe. Source: https://rm.coe.int /168071923d 8 European Urban Charter II – Manifesto for a New Urbanity (https://book.coe. int/eur/en/congress -local-and-regional -action-series /4170-manifesto-for -a-new-urbanity -european-urban -charter-ii.html)

Sharing urban security policies and projects Having to deal with their citizens’ concerns and tasked with ever increasing responsibilities as decentralisation took effect, mayors across Europe sought to boost their jurisdiction and knowledge. Linking up with other elected officials through networks made sense, so from the 1980s onwards a certain number of city networks started to be set up.

Some were alliances which promoted the role of local authorities; others were focused on specific themes such as transport or sustainable development. The Forum was a pioneer for this horizontal dialogue, through networks, between cities. Nowadays, this modus operandi has become increasingly widespread and there are national and international city networks, covering all sorts of subjects. This development coincided with the rising importance of cities as a governance level that

Bologna: “Bus Angels” In 2007, in partnership with 29 local associations, the city of Bologna (Italy) introduced a “civic assistants” scheme whose purpose is to give residents reassurance and, whenever necessary, report any incidents to the municipality. As regards the transport section of this scheme, the municipality signed an agreement with the bus company and a theatre group. Thirty or so volunteer actors travel on certain routes, identified by the bus company as being the routes where people feel most insecure, and they chat with passengers about the city’s history and its social and cultural aspects. Greatly appreciated by those using the bus service, the city of Genoa has also introduced an identical scheme.

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often works more effectively than the national level, or at least this is how it is increasingly perceived by citizens. It should be noted that to date Efus remains the only network specifically focused on urban security, which is also what sets it apart.

Jesús Solores, former Director of Security for the Cities of Pamplona and L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Spain), says that “the appearance of this unique forum in Europe helped many local administrations to look at issues, pool their ideas for urban security projects and policies in a wider sense and get European and national administrations to realise the importance of local policies when it comes to security. As for my own particular administration, many of the projects which we have set up have been inspired by discussions which have taken place at Efus.”

Jean-Pierre Balduyck, former Deputy and Mayor of Tourcoing (France) and former President of the French Forum for Urban Security (FFSU), states that “cities which act with the Forum all have a different political sensitivity but a similar situation on the ground which encourages collective analysis and promotes shared objectives. As elected officials we are there to witness and unify, we are not judges elected by our residents.” Anne Wyvekens, Research Director at the French national research institute CNRS, adds that, “whether in research or in the exchange of practices, comparisons are interesting not so much in order to reproduce a model from elsewhere but rather to change how we view our own practices.”

Let’s listen to two other experts who have worked with Efus for many years: Radim Bureš, today Director of the Probation Service in the Czech Republic, and Adam Crawford, Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Leeds University (United Kingdom)9. “The Czech government was wise enough as early as 1995 to set up a prevention fund for municipalities, so that they could develop activities and measures based on their knowledge of what happens locally,” says Bureš. “This combination of local knowledge and local stakeholders receiving financial support seems to be particularly effective at fighting crime. However, it is important not to reduce the local level to being simply about the technical aspects of prevention. Political representatives play a very important role; it is they who drive policies and prevention activities. They are there to listen to citizens’ needs and to speak out on their behalf. This is particularly important in the area of security because the fear of crime may cause just as much harm as the actual crime itself. Local policy-makers are well placed to

9 Radim Bureš was an Efus expert for the European project GOAL for prevention of violence in sport and is co-author of the publication Goal: Preventing Violence in Sport – a Guidebook for Cities (Efus 2012). Adam Crawford was one of the speakers at the Efus international conference “Security, Democracy & Cities” held in Naples in 2000, and has been working with Efus ever since.

identify the source of local fear of crime and take appropriate measures.”

Adam Crawford “shares the Forum’s vision that crime has to be situated within community safety and urban policy, because it is the product of and influences much wider areas of social life.”

From the start, a firm foothold in Europe and abroad However, with setting up a city network, “isn’t there a danger of reducing the scope of security by adopting a highly territorial approach? Thinking locally means running the risk of losing the notion “Local policyof acting globally,” said Michel Marcus at the Naples makers are well conference10. “When we carry out a study in six Europlaced to identify pean cities to examine the links between petty crime and organised crime by looking at the background of the source of local young offenders, we are signalling our determination fear of crime and to avoid any break in our thinking concerning the local take appropriate dimension [...]. The similarity of situations experienced measures.” in cities results in action and practices which follow the same direction. In 1998, when arguments between European governments about drug legislation were at their height, we brought together all the drug prevention policy makers from the cities of Liege, Aachen, Haarlem, Rotterdam, Maastricht, Valenciennes and Lille and we saw that the practices which the prosecutors, police and social services fol10 A Decade, lowed were very similar and took no account of the legal divergences Naples, Efus, 2000 that existed between the different countries.”

Brussels: night-time safety guardians In 2010, working alongside local associations, housing associations and the police, Brussels City Hall set up a team of “night-time safety guardians” who go on patrols to deal with the numerous problems of different groups living together and insecurity in Les Remparts des Moines, a disadvantaged district of the city. These “guardians” go to the district’s trouble spots; they talk with victims and troublemakers and report any incident, for example faulty equipment, problems with overturned dustbins or even people occupying hallways in blocks of flats. The residents are very satisfied with this scheme which has led to a significant drop in the number of offences and acts of vandalism.

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From the outset therefore, Efus was set up as a transnational network of European local and regional authorities. It was all about getting as close as possible to the grassroots, to what citizens aspired to and to what local governments were grappling with – but always with a vision fixed far into the distance. Nowadays, the term glocal11 aptly describes this idea of being here, with feet firmly on the ground, while at the same time looking out, around and afar.

In recent years, the relevance of “glocalism” when it comes to prevention has been felt ever more keenly as violent extremism has emerged which knows no borders and targets mainly, but not only, iconic cities (Madrid, London, Paris, Brussels, Nice, Berlin, Manchester and Barcelona) because they are cities, open spaces for exchange, cross-cultural interaction, innovation and moral freedoms, but which are also crucibles where inequalities are most brutally visible.

In this area, as in others, Efus endeavours to identify the needs of local authorities, take stock of existing resources and then develop targeted support, training courses and methodological tools. It therefore creates a corpus of knowledge and analysis drawn from the cities’ experiences, academic research and contributions from institutions and experts, which can all learn from one another. In particular, as part of this approach the Forum has managed two European Union-funded projects, one to train local and regional authorities to devise and implement local strategies for preventing radicalisation, and the other to boost capacity-building for local and regional authorities, in particular through training programmes to combat radicalisation12.

However, this matter of preventing radicalisation, today so urgent and pervading, also reveals the extent to which prevention policies have been adversely affected by a lack of investment and are still suffering from it. How is it even possible that we didn’t see this phenomenon coming? After implementing prevention in European cities for over thirty years, has it failed so badly to assuage the disaffection and anger eating away at certain citizens that they now choose to make themselves heard with such extraordinary fury? Despite all the programmes implemented over the past years to tackle the effects of social segregation which lead to crime, are cities in the end ineffectual? Is there any point in building capacity for cities when they are struggling with global phenomena over which they can exert little influence?

To this question the mayors (or at least those represented by Efus) answer that yes, there is a definite need to carry on sharing and jointly devising solutions, testing practices, training

11 The portmanteau word glocal (global + local) was invented in the 1990s by Carlsberg’s CEO to describe economic globalisation which adapts to fit local markets. It has come to mean any approach which takes into account both the global and the local dimension.

12 Local Institutions Against Extremism (LIAISE) projects, please refer to the Efus web site for further information.

teams responsible for prevention, strengthening partnerships with local stakeholders and ensuring that civil society remains involved. Vasco Franco, former Deputy Major of Lisbon and Vice-Chair of the Observatory for Security, Organised Crime and Terrorism in PorA definite need to tugal, believes that “in a period where there is a crisis of carry on sharing values and identity, authorities in the European Union and jointly devising must invest massively in prevention programmes. Not only to combat terrorism, organised crime, human trafsolutions and ficking, drug smuggling, corruption and so on. But also testing practices. to promote our values of tolerance, integrity, solidarity and respect for human rights which form part of our European heritage.”

Vasco Franco connects action on the ground to taking a position on policy; you cannot have one without the other. This is what the Forum is working towards, deeming it essential for policies to be jointly developed, since especially, as with other urban security issues, violent extremism linked to radicalisation may be used as a pretext to justify a shift towards hyper-surveillance or discrimination against certain communities. This is why in 2016, in association with the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Efus set up the “Alliance of European Cities against violent extremism” which aims to increase interaction between European cities in this area while at the same time ensuring that fundamental rights are protected13. “The policies which Efus adopts are based on and reflected in concrete programmes, specific approaches on the ground to address a particular issue and the training programmes we develop and deliver,” says Elizabeth Johnston, Exec13 Please refer to the utive Director of Efus. “There is permanent toing and froing between CoE website: www. adopting policies and taking concrete action.” coe.int/t/congress/ files/events/2016/ 20161109-Rotterdam/default_en.asp

Lisbon: preventing and managing major risks As a way of preventing and managing major risks, the city of Lisbon opened a single command centre to house different organisations which until then had worked separately: the Lisbon fire service, the forest fire service, civil protection service and municipal police force. Set up in 2010, this joint operations centre (SALOC) allows everyone involved in an operation to draw up a prevention and intervention strategy together, improve coordination and reduce response times. The Lisbon system has become part of a national integrated system (SIRESP).

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Exchanging ideas and practices “Forum n. In Roman Antiquity, the market square in Rome where the people would gather, and which was the centre of the city’s political, economic and religious life. Literary. Place where public business is conducted. Meeting with debate, colloquium.” (Larousse). As its name indicates, the Forum is a physical and virtual space where people meet and exchange ideas – often and for long periods of time.

A flexible, horizontal structure, the Forum works on the principle that everyone, within the network, The Forum’s way of should be informed about its activities, and most imoperating reflects its portantly, be able to debate them, put forward ideas, nature and credo, air doubts and make suggestions. The Forum’s way which is that of an of operating reflects its nature and credo, which is open space where that of an open space where free exchange of words free exchange of and knowledge is encouraged. words and knowledge This means that a lot of talking takes place in the Forum. And in many languages, which sometimes is encouraged. leads to discussions in a somewhat comical Esperanto and depending on the projects and participants this can produce a combination of French, English, Spanish (at times nuanced by Argentinean, Chilean or Colombian expressions), Catalan, German, Italian, Portuguese, Flemish and sometimes, subject to the projects and 1 Language invented partnerships, also Polish, Czech and even Romanian. Not forgetting, in 1996 by Diego of course, that particular language spoken in European institutions, Marani, a journalist 1 and translator at the English-based “europanto” when you can get a trilogue about the abCouncil of Europe. sorption capacity and actority of those taking part in a work package.

Vienna: a charter to prepare for the future To promote good neighbourly relations and improve the way people live together, the city of Vienna (Austria) carried out a vast consultation process with its residents which resulted in the publication of the Vienna Charter, in 2012. Drafted during an intense process of consultation with the city’s residents and organised district by district through faceto-face meetings but also using social networks, and with many different civil society associations taking part, this Charter sets out individual rights and obligations so that Vienna is a pleasant city to live in, tolerant and respectful of others, especially with regard to good neighbourly relations, cleanliness, driving and use of public spaces.

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These discussions between elected officials, security and prevention technical staff, academics, experts, police officers, magistrates and representatives from non-government organisations take place during projects run by Efus, and at conferences, seminars, workshops, training sessions and many meetings. They take place physically, but also through the Efus Network, a collaborative platform launched in 2014, which nowadays has 900 users, the Forum’s website (2,500 visits per month) and its monthly newsletter (over 8,000 subscribers). Discussions involve the 250 or so active Efus members, but also the hundreds of people and organisations with which Efus “Efus is a hub where elected offiis in contact, both in Europe and throughout the world.

“This is a lesson which the Forum has always taken on board. Getting cials, public agents, people round a table who are tackling problems in a concrete manner experts, academics, makes any dialogue possible; just bringing in the ex- etc. all circulate.” perts highlights divergences before convergences,” wrote “A continuous exMichel Marcus in 20002. Jacques de Maillard, Professor of Political Scichange of ideas between managers, ence at Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines University, with which the elected officials and French Forum offers a university degree course, Urban Life and Security, states that: “Efus is a hub where elected officials, public agents, experts, technical staff about academics, etc. all circulate, motivated by shared values such as innodaily, concrete, revation, partnership, the significance of the local dimension and the role al-life practices in of prevention and assessment. As a researcher, it offers a vital place for meeting and exchanging views. As a teacher, it’s a crucial partner in detheir city at grassveloping training courses.” As for Bertrand Binctin, former Deputy Mayor roots level.” of Le Havre with responsibility for security and also former Vice-President of the French Forum and an Efus Executive Committee member, he stresses how useful it is for municipalities to have a “continuous exchange of ideas between managers, elected officials and technical staff about daily, concrete, real-life practices in their city at grassroots level, inside their schools and their detention facilities, and also about how they are tackling particular addictions.”

A Decade, Naples, Efus, 2000

3 Some 200 practices including the most recent are available to Efus members via the online platform Efus Network.

4 Both publications are now out of print.

5 These practices are published in the book Preventing Discriminatory Violence at the Local Level: Practices and Recommendations from the European project Just & Safer Cities for All. 6 Set up in 2001

by UN-Habitat, the World Urban Forum is the most important global conference on urban issues. It takes place every two years in a different city (Quito in Peru in 2016 and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia in 2018).

7 100 Promising Practices on Safer Cities, Collation of Urban Safety Practices, The Global Network on Safer Cities, 2014.

Malmö: fighting domestic violence together

Exchanging practices for action on the ground Since its foundation, Efus’ ambition has been to catalogue practices used in cities and regions in Europe, as well as those from other continents, and share them with its network. Over the years, it has accumulated a rich repository of some 800 practices covering a wide range of topics, ranging from prevention of drug abuse to prevention of violence against women, as well as ways of controlling night-life revelry, preventing reoffending and protecting the elderly, to mention but a few3. Efus has published several compendiums of practices, the first was in 1996, Urban Security Practices, to which there was a sequel two years later Urban Security Practices-Drug Addiction4. Recently, it published a compendium of European Practices for Social Integration Through Sport (2017) as well as 50 practices for combating discriminatory violence5. The Forum also shares these practices outside its members’ network: in 2014 it was asked by the UN-Habitat6 World Urban Forum (WUF) to share 50 European practices published in the book 100 Promising Practices on Safer Cities7. These various compendiums are but a small part of the Forum’s work of collecting and sharing. For each topic it works on, Efus shares practices through its activities, face-to-face events and online networks.

How do practices implemented in one particular community manage to inspire another community? The Forum does not seek to quantify or measure the impact of these exchanges – this is not what it is about. Nor is there any question of suggesting practices so that they

Set up in 1996 by the Municipality of Malmö (Sweden) in collaboration with the police and health services, the “Integrated Programme against Intra-family Violence” aimed to make this sort of violence visible and give victims support. Devised to meet their specific needs, it also includes children and perpetrators. Since the project started, the number of cases reported has increased by 50% and many initiatives have developed, in particular crisis centres for women, children and men; there is a specialist division within the police and specific prosecutors are appointed; a special programme has been set up to provide hospital care for victims in Malmö, and a rehabilitation programme for perpetrators run by the prison and probation services. Malmö City Hall carries out an annual appraisal of the scheme and it has recently been updated to include more prevention work.

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get duplicated like a recipe. Instead the idea is to inspire and provide in-depth, concrete information.

In 2005, the Czech city of Brno set up a “Senior Citizens Academy” with the aim of teaching the over-60s how to protect themselves from criminals, especially fraudsters, and take a more active role in the life of their community. This initiative inspired the cities of Brasov (Romania) and Lisbon, which now too run similar projects. Franco Corradini, former Head of Cohesion and Security for Reggio Emilia (Italy) and Efus Vice-President from 2008 to 2014, says that he “learnt a great deal from cities’ experiences and especially their practices. In particular, I would mention the Safer Drinking Scenes project on ways of managing city nightlife: ten cities shared their good practices, their problems, their limits and recommendations. My city benefitted from applying these recommendations in an integrated, consistent manner.” Vasco Franco adds that as far as he is concerned “we are all on a two-way journey: our experience in the field provides input for the debates within Efus, and in turn these debates help improve our experiences, inspiring new actions and new players.”

Yvano de Biasio, Director of Prevention and Security in Charleroi (Belgium) from 1993 to 2016, comments that, “personally, the exchange of practices organised

by Efus spared me the need to reinvent sliced bread and allowed me to meet many high level professionals, and break the relative isolation of local authority managers.”

Mannheim: a coalition for diversity

Providing training, support and professionalisation Insofar as prevention policies almost always involve local partnerships, local Heads of Security (coordinators in French or security managers in English) are required to coordinate a whole array of organisations and stakeholders. This makes their job complex as it covers several fields and disciplines and specialist training is required. Since its foundation, the Forum has been determined to establish links with European universities. It quickly developed and offered its members security-sector training courses, covering specific themes and to fit local authority requirements. Already early in 2000 it had launched its European degree in urban security project, today embodied in a Master’s course delivered in partnership with a consortium of European universities. In France, the Local Heads of SeForum has provided training for the first generations curity are required of prevention coordinators, French Municipal Counto coordinate a cil leaders (CCPD), then for Local Security Contracts (CLS). For several years now, the French Forum has whole array of orbeen running a degree course with the Versailles ganisations and Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines University as well as stakeholders. training on urban security issues for local authority employees and other professionals. Lastly, most European projects include a training component, or aim to provide training for partners taking part in them.

Providing support for municipalities or local authorities is another

Mannheim (Germany, approximately 300,000 inhabitants) is an extremely diverse city. In 2016, with the aim of promoting respectful coexistence among all residents and fighting discrimination, the City Hall started its “Coalition for Diversity” bringing together stakeholders from civil society, the local political scene, local administration and the private sector. The coalition’s aims are to share knowledge, in particular about projects which the participating associations have developed, to increase stakeholders’ professional skills, for example through anti-discrimination and anti-racism workshops, and to raise awareness among local communities of the need to respect diversity and fight racism.

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dimension of the Forumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work which over the years has become increasingly important. This may involve technical support (for example carrying out a security audit), or it may be more strategic (drawing up a comprehensive security plan), as well as helping cities, with the support of associate experts, to develop and set up Efus is responding a pilot project. In so doing, Efus is responding to the growing need felt to the growing need by local authorities, faced with complex challenges and ever-widening felt by local author- responsibilities. There are many examples of pilot projects jointly run with Efus in various areas (radicalisation, discrimination, risk reduction ities, faced with complex challenges. and integration through sport to name but a few). To focus on just one from many examples, the French municipality of Saint-Denis set up a multi-disciplinary working group to look at security and tourism as part of a project run by Efus in 2015, as a result of which it produced an audit Is it possible to for the action the municipal authority should take on this new issue. A measure the imparticularly innovative partnership, which brought together representa- pact of all these tives from public authorities and the private sector, it has continued to exchanges on life as operate once the pilot project ended. it is actually experi-

enced in our cities?

Thousands of hours spent sharing ideas and solutions Conferences are a key moment for exchanging ideas with peers from other municipalities and regions in Europe, as well as with all the professionals, academics and non-governmental organisations which attend this sort of occasion.

The Forumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s founding event was the Barcelona international conference, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Preventing urban in-

security in Europe”, which was attended by around 800 people in 1987. Under the name “Security, Democracy & Cities”, Efus has since organised five international conferences – Montreal (1989), Paris (1991), Naples (2000), Saragossa (2006), Aubervilliers and Saint-Denis (2012) and Barcelona (2017). Even in the age of the internet, social media and video-conferences, nothing can replace these large meetings where attendees can examine dozens of issues with their counterparts from across Europe and meet with speakers whom they would seldom encounter in their daily professional lives. This is why the Forum takes part every year in dozens of conferences in Europe and throughout the world (for Even in the age of example UN-Habitat events), represented by its offithe internet nothing cials or technical team. On every occasion, the Forum can replace these spreads the message of the importance of prevention large meetings in tackling urban security issues and it disseminates where attendees can concrete recommendations from the projects it has run with cities. examine dozens of However, all these words that are exchanged, these issues with their thousands of hours spent presenting the Forum’s counterparts from approach and recommendations and listening to across Europe. speakers sharing their thoughts and experiences, are they not just simply that: words? Is it possible to measure the impact of all these exchanges on life as it is actually experienced in our cities? “It demonstrated to me how conferences and manifestos can be powerful influences on local practices,” replies Sohail Husain, an Efus expert (in particular for the publication Guidance on Local Safety Audits8) and Director of Analytica Consulting Services. Irvin Waller, Professor of Criminology at the University of Ottawa (Cana8 Guidance on Local Safety Audits, Efus, da), a scientific consultant for the Forum when it was set up and then 2007 subsequently Executive Director (1992-1994) of the International

Matosinhos and the Government of Catalonia: a study on senior citizens In 2016, the city of Matosinhos, using methodology developed by the Government of Catalonia carried out an in-depth study of its population aged 50 and over as part of its municipal strategy which aims to make prevention programmes for senior citizens more relevant or devise new schemes. The Portuguese city and the Catalonian regional government are very active in this area and are behind the working group that Efus set up for this issue. The Matosinhos study analyses every aspect of the lives of senior citizens, from their marital status to their occupation, the role they play within their families, the support they receive from friendship networks and their sense of security / insecurity.

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Centre for the Prevention of Crime (ICPC) based in Montreal, with which the Forum works closely, adds that these conferences “bring together mayors and many other actors who can advance investments in effective crime prevention and provide a vision to achieve it.”

In another vein, Alioune Badiane, former Regional Director of UN-HabiDrawing up the tat and nowadays retired, explains how it was at the UN-Habitat conferManifesto is a long ence in Istanbul, in 1996, that he met the Forum when consulting it on process to which security in African cities. “It was at this conference that the idea arose member cities con- for an urban security issues programme within the United Nations: the Safer Cities Urban Management Programme run by the United Nations tribute as well as Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank and UN-Habitat. As external partners. regards the programme’s urban security section, we worked very closely alongside the Forum. Moreover, it was following on from this Istanbul conference that the idea came about to set up an African Forum for urban security. At that time it was unable to get off the ground as such, but discussions and collaboration have taken place with several large African cities.”

Scripta manent...

Efus’ Manifesto stems from the intensive exchanges taking place at the “Security, Democracy & Cities” conferences.

The intensive exchanges which take place during the “Security, Democracy & Cities” international conferences on a whole range of issues (ranging from sharing public spaces to citizen participation as well as the role of the police, preventing addictions, drug abuse and violence against women, to name but a few) allow us to draw up joint draft policies, formulated in a Manifesto which is published after each conference. This means that every five or six years, the Forum’s community formally states its principles, objectives and recommendations in a text where each word is carefully chosen. Drawing up the Manifesto is a long process to which the network’s member cities contribute as well as exter-

nal partners such as civil society organisations, universities and national and European institutions. The Manifesto reflects trends observed during the preceding period as well as those challenges which cities will have to confront in the coming years. The current Efus Manifesto is the Barcelona and Catalonia Manifesto (November 2017), “Efus has managed which carries on from that of Aubervilliers and Saint-Denis (2012).

Information about issues and the exchanges organised via the Forum innovative studies can also be found in publications which appear either once the Euro- on lots of different pean projects come to an end or at the Forum’s own initiative. Since the topics, both in publication of Security and Democracy (1994), Efus has published around theory and in sixty books on themes ranging from preventing drug abuse and reoffending, to managing major sporting events, video surveillance, security practice. Conversely, and tourism, improving police-population relations, and preventing vio- I have made my lent radicalisation and discriminatory violence. Available free of charge contribution to to network members, these publications also add to the debates, they Efus’ objectives.” help share practices and recommendations, disseminate knowledge and spread the vision shared by Efus members and partners. They also aim to set out clearly issues which can often be complex.

“All the approaches and ideas which come out of the debates, studies and conferences have left me convinced that urban security is fundamental to democracy in a Europe where local communities are worried about economic crises and where marginalisation fosters routine crime,” says Jesús Solores. Yvano de Biasio adds that in its role as a platform for exchanges, Efus has “managed innovative studies on lots of different topics, both in theory and in practice. Conversely, I have made my contribution to Efus’ objectives by offering my experience as a practitioner and my quest for answers”. Éric Lenoir says for his part that, “Efus allowed me to see the wider picture in my professional practice by being confronted to other contexts and practices and looking abroad: as Éric Weil said, it is the other tradition, the one from abroad, that shows me a mirror without which I would not be able to recognise my own face.”

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Europe and the world Since its foundation, the Forum for Urban Security has been European. In the late 1980s, while European institutions were going through a dual phase of enlargement and increased recognition of the importance of local democracy, Efus’ founders, like the majority of the continent’s governments and citizens, were entirely convinced of the validity of the European project.

Meanwhile, at European level the principles and Efus’ founders, like methods for reducing urban insecurity which the the majority of the Forum supported were bearing fruit and in 1998, continent’s governthe Council of Europe gave the Forum consultative status as an international non-governmental organments and citizens, isation. At national level, bodies appeared throughwere convinced of out the 1990s which were responsible for crime the validity of the prevention policy. Links were made with social European project. development policies. In France, a National Crime Prevention Council was set up, later followed by a National Council of Cities. The 1998 Crime and Disorder Act adopted by the United Kingdom targeted both disorder and anti-social behaviour, so that security as a term became more widely accepted, and a robust social development policy was also implemented. In Belgium, a National Crime Prevention Council and (local) Crime Prevention Committees 1 Secucities, urban were introduced in 1985. In Italy, security protocols between the pocrime prevention lice and municipalities appeared from 1998 onwards. Also at this policies in Europe: 1 towards a common time, Spain created its juntas de seguridad (security boards). culture?, Efus, 2006 So it was that in cities, partnerships organised in the form of perma-

Düsseldorf: encouraging citizens to get involved In 1999, a young woman living in Düsseldorf (Germany) was travelling by tram when she was attacked by a young man, forced off the tram and then sexually assaulted – without anyone intervening to help. This attack and the apathy of those who witnessed it led the city’s Prevention Council to set up a programme called “Get involved: promoting moral courage!” to encourage citizens, and in particular young people (14+), to intervene in incidents of this type.

In 2009, the city introduced a new project as part of this programme: debates were organised in schools about how to react when witnessing an incident without putting oneself in danger. In addition, secondary school pupils were asked to produce a video on the theme of moral courage. The films judged to be the best were shown to the general public and broadcast on the local TV channel, as well as being screened at two of the city’s main cinemas.

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nent coalitions became established in many countries. In Europe, contracts were signed with increasing frequency between different parties so that actions could be better coordinated and shared outcomes achieved. There was convergence among the schemes, and also in the working methods covering diagnostics, audit, technical aspects of partnerships, management and evaluation.2 From the early In order to fully embody its European nature, the Forum makes sure that 1990s onwards, na- its in-house team and governance bodies represent the diversity of EU tional Forums were countries (but not exclusively). Over the years, it has counted project managers from Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Greece, Italy, Poland, also set up. After Portugal, Romania, the United Kingdom and even Colombia. As for the the French Forum, Forum’s Presidents, elected by the General Meetings, after Gilbert Bonnecame the Italian, maison (1987-1996), they were of French, Belgian, Italian, Spanish and Spanish, Belgian, Portuguese nationality3. Likewise, the association’s Executive Committee reflects the countries represented within the Forum and each year the Portuguese and General Assembly meetings takes place in a different European country.

German Forums.

From the early 1990s onwards, national Forums were also set up. After the French Forum (FFSU, founded in 1992) came the Italian (FISU, 1996), Spanish (FEPSU, 1998), Belgian (FBPSU, 1998), Portuguese (FOPSU, 2005) and German Forums (DEFUS, 2010). A Luxembourg Forum was active for some years. The Forums are there to develop and build the principles, practices and knowledge which its members develop at European level, in those countries most represented within the Forum.

However, it should be noted that Efus still remains primarily western European. Although some eastern European cities have taken part in many programmes and also in the Forum’s governance bodies, and although the Forum has been in regular communication too with ministries and universities, eastern Europe is to date still under-represented.

Language presents an obstacle, but also a lack of resources and perhaps too a certain lack of current interest in the European project.

2 A Decade, Naples, Efus, 2000 3 1987-1996: Gilbert Bonnemaison, former Mayor of Épinay-sur Seine (France); 19961998: Martine Aubry, Mayor of Lille (France); 1998-2000: Leona Detiège, Mayor of Antwerp (Belgium); 2000-2003: Giuliano Barbolini, Mayor of Modena (Italy); 2003-2007: Freddy Thielemans, Mayor of Brussels (Belgium); 20072010: Juan Alberto Belloch Julbe, Mayor of Saragossa (Spain); 2010-2017: Guilherme Pinto, Mayor of Matosinhos (Portugal); from 2017: Willy Demeyer, Mayor of Liege (Belgium).

Gdansk: promoting migrant integration

European projects on specific themes Support from the European Union can also be seen in the funding the Commission gives to support European cooperation projects.

This funding makes up a significant proportion of the association’s budget and activities. Lasting on average two to three years, these projects systematically bring together cities or regions from several countries, as well as outside experts, universities or research institutes and civil society organisations, depending on the theme in question.

It would not be possible to mention all the European projects which Efus has developed and piloted over the years, involving hundreds of cities and regions. However, it is interesting to note how there are a certain number of recurrent themes which the Forum chooses to work on by seeking the support it needs (ofThese projects bring together ten from the European Commission, but also cities or regions from several from national governments).

Historically, prevention of risks from drug countries, as well as outside experts, universities or research abuse has been a theme on which Efus has carried out much work helping to establish, institutes and civil society both at European and international level, the organisations. principles of risk reduction and multi-disciplinary partnership to deal with the challenges of drug use and its impact on cities in all its dimensions. On this theme, it led for example the Democracy, Cities & Drugs project (DCD), where around one hundred authorities and major stakeholders, from the volun-

The city of Gdansk has had to deal with an increase in immigration over the past few years. It felt that the work of the various stakeholders involved in integrating migrants needed better coordination to provide them with improved services but also to raise awareness among the population of the benefits of immigration. In spring 2016, Gdansk was the first city in Poland to produce an “Integration Model for Immigrants” using a participatory approach involving 70 local organisations and institutions: universities, non-governmental organisations, private and public sectors and organisations representing migrants. The objectives are to improve the way migrants are received by Gdansk’s public and social institutions and to facilitate their integration into the local community with regard to education, culture, access to social services, housing, preventing violence and discrimination, employment and health.

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tary sector in particular, worked to reduce these risks at European level. While running this project, Efus had to deal with the challenge of increasing consumption of alcohol.

This led it to develop strategies for managing nightlife, a crucially important issue for many cities4.

For many years now Efus has also been working on the prevention of vi- “One of Efus’ olence in sport, which is also part and parcel of managing major events. distinctive features In 2000, when the European Cup was being played in football stadiums is its expertise in Belgium and the Netherlands, it led a project to fight racism. More in managing recently, in 2012, with six cities and various contributing experts5, Efus European projects.” ran a project on managing major sporting events and preventing violence in and around stadiums. In 2015-2016, the Forum organised a compendium of practices from across Europe for social integration Through sport; 25 of these, deemed as being especially promising, were published6.

This last project, for which Efus introduced the first European Prize for Social Integration Through Sport, inspired the European Commission which, citing it as an 4 Please refer to the publication Safer effort of good practice, set up its own prize.

Drinking Scenes: AlOther important issues the Forum regularly works cohol, City and Nighton are: juvenile delinquency, preventing reoffending, life, Efus and FFSU, 2013 preventing violence against women and the elderly, community policing and improving police-population 5 Goal: Preventing relations, human trafficking, video surveillance and Violence in Sport, Efus, 2012 information technology, methodology and audits to ensure a strategic approach to urban security, preventing 6 European Practices racism and discriminatory violence and, more recently, for Social Integration Through Sport, Efus, preventing violent radicalisation.

2017. As part of this “One of Efus’ distinctive features is its expertise in man- project, Efus also set aging European Union projects,” comments Véronique up the first European Prize for Social Ketelaer, former director of Bravvo, the body which Integration Through manages prevention in the City of Brussels. “By turning Sport.

to Efus for support and using it as a specialist technical consultancy, cities are able to get involved in Europeans projects. It’s clear that without this, some of them would not have the time to take part in these projects and they would also be unable to contribute because they don’t always have access to the information and practices required.” Vasco Franco, former Deputy Mayor of Lisbon, highlights the local safety audits project, which led to the publication of a guidebook for municipalities. “These guidebooks are very important tools for helping diagnose and draw up prevention strategies in cities. They were also extreme“These guidebooks are very ly useful for my work in Latin America on important tools for helping dithe Eurosocial programme for cooperation agnose and draw up prevention between the EU and Latin America.” Gilles Mahieu, Governor of the Province of Walstrategies in cities. They were loon Brabant (Belgium), focuses on “dealing also extremely useful for my with drug abuse in urban settings. Through work in Latin America.” the Forum’s projects we have been able to break free of moral taboos and tackle this issue in terms of reducing risk and impact on the types of delinquency and crime which are fuelled by drugs.”

Dakar: 500 volunteers making the City better In 2010, in order to improve the quality of life in Dakar (Senegal) and encourage citizen participation, the City Hall introduced an ambitious volunteering programme using its own funds.

Five hundred male and female volunteers, aged between 18 and 40, were recruited, trained and allocated to the city’s 19 municipalities. The aim was to “strengthen the municipal authorities’ capacity for prevention and intervention and for managing order, cleanliness, traffic flow and road safety, hygiene and the environment, beaches, covered markets and marketplaces.” This initiative has led to improvements in beach security, traffic flow (vehicles and pedestrians) and use of public spaces. But also, in a more general way, it has improved dialogue between the City Hall and residents. These volunteers also support local neighbourhood representatives (400) in building social cohesion within local neighbourhoods.

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Developing international exchanges

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The Forum’s successive Manifestos state that “the Forum’s cities are open to the world, they are hospitable cities.” Given how vital it is that exchanges develop in other parts of the world too, for Forum members the very thought of a city network existing solely for Europe is simply inconceivable. Since the outset, Efus “The United has had contact with cities in North America. In 1994, it was involved in Nations Sustainable setting up the International Centre for the Prevention of Crime (ICPC), Development Goals based in Montreal, whose first President was Gilbert Bonnemaison7. Ir- (SDG) provide a vin Waller, Professor of Criminology at the University of Ottawa (Canada) new framework and very closely involved with the foundation of Efus and ICPC, says that “the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) provide a new for implementing framework for implementing actions which will make it actions which will “For those involved possible to reduce crime and victimisation.” In 2016, the make it possible to in urban prevention UN adopted 17 Goals for 2030, several of which are di- reduce crime and it is the culmination rectly relevant to Efus: Goal 5 –“Achieve gender equality victimisation.” and empower all women and girls” – Goal 11 – “Make of years of work to cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” – and Goal 16 – “Proget the issue of semote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, the curity recognized as provision of access to justice for all, and building effective, accountable a fundamental asand inclusive institutions at all levels.” In its particular areas of work, pect of sustainable Efus has long been actively involved in the work of the United Nations, in particular with UN-Habitat (United Nations Human Settlements Prodevelopment.” gramme) through its Safer Cities programme and with UNODC (United 7 ICPC website, Nations Office on Drugs and Crime). “For Efus this is a highly important area and for www.crime-preventhose involved in urban prevention it is the culmination of years of work to get the issue tion-intl.org

of security recognized as a fundamental aspect of sustainable development,” comments Elizabeth Johnston.

Since its foundation, Efus has also worked hard to develop links with the countries bordering the Mediterranean, especially by working on the European MED-Urbs programme, as well as with Africa and Latin America. From 1991 to 1996, MED-Urbs brought together 150 cities in 22 networks “The Forum has long which worked on environmental problems, recognized Africa as a partner town planning, municipal management, and believed that European social mobility, youth employment, urban cities could learn from transport and local taxation systems8. Since initiatives being carried out in then work with the Mediterranean area, and Africa, especially since many particularly with the Maghreb, has been inAfricans live in Europe.” frequent, so one of Efus’ priorities today is to expand its relations with this region.

Permanent dialogue and cooperation with sub-Saharan Africa

8 European Commission, source: europa.eu/rapid /press-release_ MEMO-93-26_ fr.htm

Very early on, the Forum established relations of permanent dialogue and cooperation with sub-Saharan Africa. “The Forum has long recognized Africa as a partner and believed that European cities could learn from initiatives being carried out in Africa, especially since many Africans live in Europe,” comments Alioune Badiane. Among the many themes of shared interest, he mentions in particular preventing violence against women and young people. “In Africa, this is of major concern as 40% of the population is under 25. We are

Cooperation between the EU and Latin America For four years, from 2011 to 2015, Efus was a partner in the Eurosocial II programme for cooperation between the EU and Latin America. The programme was coordinated by the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP) under the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Expertise France, the international cooperation agency under the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

It was implemented by Efus and the International Juvenile Justice Observatory (IJJO). The programme involved supporting public policies and institutions working to improve social cohesion in certain Latin American countries. Efus was an operational partner for the programme’s “citizen security” section which covered Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, El Salvador and Uruguay. Among the many activities it implemented, Efus developed a “Regional Model for the Prevention of Violence and Crime” to provide support to governments in designing and managing their prevention actions and programmes.

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particularly interested in the Forum’s approach which is to view young people as being both perpetrators and victims of urban insecurity.”

Already back in 1998, mayors in Côte d’Ivoire had set up the Ivorian Forum for Urban Security drawing support from the UN-Habitat Safer Cities project and inspired by what was happening in Europe. Nowadays, still with support from the Safer Cities programme and Efus, African cities are working towards setting up an African Forum for Urban Security.

Close relations with Latin America

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Since its early years, Efus has also nurtured relations with Latin America. President of El Agora9, an Argentinean association dedicated to the exchange of urban security practices, Claudia Laub, who is also a sociologist at the University of Buenos Aires, explains how having come across the Forum in the early 1990s, she discovered “the concept of local security which for us was a paradigm shift given how much the word ‘security’ was associated here with State security and “The concept of local security the military dictatorship.” She adds that in Argentina, “insecurity was for us a paradigm shift given in politics, the media and the social sphere is interpreted as a how much the word ‘security’ dichotomy between delinquents and society, between criminals was associated in Argentina with and the State. What is more, the answer is always to criminal- State security and the military ise, in a purely punitive sense. This way the relationship between dictatorship.” organised crime and public officials is made invisible. Yet, it is this very relationship which makes it impossible to deal with prevention since the problem is difficult to identify. At the Forum, the work done on these issues has enabled us to see things from another perspective. Conversely, Latin America has been able to contribute its ability 9 Source: to mobilise support from civil society, which is greater www.elagora.org.ar

here than in Europe.”

One example of Efus’ work in Latin America is the URB-AL programme on urban policies aimed at enhancing cooperation between Europe and Latin America and for which the Forum was a partner. More recently, the Forum has worked with Bogota, the Colombian capital, to draw up its 2007-2017 comprehensive security plan and the Bogota Chamber of Commerce is one of its associate partners. In recent years, Efus has been a partner in the Eurosocial programme for cooperation between Europe and Latin America (2011-2015), whose goal was to support different governments in the region in designing their strategy for preventing violence.

“The Forum, UN-Habitat and other stakeholders have put a lot of work into achieving a better understanding of the process of security co-production, using an approach that is about getting the people involved,” comments Alioune Badiane. “Prevention, improving police-population relations, mediation, gender approach and protecting women in the urban space – these are all ideas which have gained widespread acceptance.”

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And tomorrow?

Wednesday 13 November 2047. The World and European Forum for Urban Security (Wefus) Conference on Security, Democracy & Cities opens in London, a venue chosen to mark the United Kingdom’s reintegration into the European Union, in 2043, a generation after Brexit.

The general theme is “Robocops and freedom: cybercrime prevention and respecting fundamental rights”. There is concern due to the unrelenting advances in technologies which now make it If we think about ur- possible to predict and foil criminal acts before they ban security and look even take place so that in certain countries pre-empahead 30 years, what tive arrests have become ever more frequent, which is particularly worrying. The powerful European Parcan we imagine, fear liament of Cities (EPC) based in Athens has recently or hope for? What are issued a directive calling upon mayors to make use of the major trends that their wide powers to monitor the activities of the priwill mark the years to vate mega-corporations which hold masses of data on come? What action the lives and activities of individual citizens. However, the recent spate of artificial intelligence enabled cydo we need to take ber-attacks against systems of governance in a certain today? number of EU smart cities such as London, Paris and Istanbul has raised concerns and is forcing some national governments to demand ever greater surveillance powers [...].

Political fiction of course, and no doubt unlikely, but not impossible.

If we think about urban security and look ahead 30 years, what can we imagine, fear or hope for? What are the major trends which will

Lower Saxony: the “Communities That Care” (CTC) scheme Since the mid-2000s, the Lower Saxony Crime Prevention Council (LPR-Niedersachsen, Germany) has been running its “Communities That Care” (CTC) scheme, originally developed in the United States to support and guide local prevention coalitions. The scheme is about getting the whole local community involved in preventing problem behaviour, especially among young people, and reducing crime and violence. Tested in the field, the CTC method focuses particularly on seeking out risk and protection factors, empowering the local community, offering proactive training and technical assistance and evaluating local results. Organised by the Lower Saxony Crime Prevention Council, the CTC scheme has been adopted by those authorities that wish to run it, of which to date there are 25, as well as the City of Augsburg, in Bavaria.

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mark the years to come? And to help us best prepare for this future, what action do we need to take today and which pitfalls do we need to avoid? Since the Forum is intent on not only managing day-to-day operations, but also on looking ahead to the medium- and long-term future, these issues are continually discussed within the network.

From the exchanges taking place currently, there are three themes which stand out as being of most interest or concern to the Forum’s members and partners: new technologies and their impact on our civil liberties, radicalisation leading to violence, and the risks for social cohesion posed by migration and an ageing population.

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New technologies, of which video surveillance was the precursor, are in many respects useful since they can help advance prevention; however, they are also causing concern.

New technologies and liberties In August 2017, during the Notting Hill Festival in London, where there was particularly high security due to the attacks a few months previously in London and Manchester, the police tried out an intelligent video surveillance system which uses face recognition to identify wanted individuals. The results turned out to be disastrous as the software wrongly identified 35 totally innocent individuals. Several British associations have denounced these systems, stating that the biometric databases used by these cameras are illegal and that their use constitutes a violation of fundamental rights1.

This is just one example among many to illustrate the developing use of new technologies in the field of security. New technologies, of which video surveillance was the precursor, are in many respects useful since they can help advance prevention; however, they are also causing concern. While on this subject, it is interesting to note that this incident took place in the United Kingdom which holds the world record for video surveillance2.

Cybercrime is the other side of the story. Faceless, fluid and paying no heed to borders, cybercrime is particularly difficult to track down and can have ramifications on the sys-

1 Le Monde, “United Kingdom: an ‘intelligent’ video surveillance experiment produces disastrous results”, 1 September 2017 2 Estimates vary but according to an exhaustive 2013 report from the British Security Industry Association (BSIA) there were then between 4 and 5.9 million video surveillance cameras in the United Kingdom, i.e. one for every 14 to 11 persons.

tems governing our daily lives, whether these be our banks, electricity grids or mobile phone networks, on a scale not seen before.

Adam Crawford states: “in the coming years one of our great challenges will be to control cyberspace. Over the past 30 years, technology provided much more capacity to monitor people. Furthermore, there will be an issue in the use of non-human algorithms - but nevertheless designed by humans - that will increasAlthough European local auingly influence our behaviour and actions in thorities may fear that the fight various different ways. Whether you call it against cybercrime is eating ‘algorithmic justice’ or ‘means of prevention built in technology’, this can take benevolent into local prevention budgets, forms such as when Amazon tells you what they are also well aware of the books to buy, but it can also raise issues. Esbenefits of new technologies. pecially because there is nobody analysing the data: it’s the algorithms themselves that decide what’s appropriate or not, and that intervene through some kind of processes without any human intervention.”

Although local authorities throughout Europe may fear that the fight against cybercrime in all its forms – from financial fraud to online grooming – is eating into part of the budget allocated to local prevention at a time when their resources are already under pressure, they are also well aware of the benefits to be gained from these new technologies, specifically in boosting local prevention. They are not alone: increasingly police forces are making use of technology and social networks, in particular to gather information and alert the general public. Likewise they are also used by civil society organisations, for example, to run awareness-raising campaigns or communicate messages to counter toxic speech, whether it be sexist, extremist or hate speech.

As these new technologies develop and their use becomes more

Emilia-Romagna Foundation for the Victims of Crime The Emilia-Romagna Foundation for the Victims of Crime was created in 2004 by the Region of Emilia-Romagna to help victims of serious crime committed in or outside the region. It is the only body of an institutional nature in Italy committed to offering direct support to victims of violent crimes, in compliance with EU Victims Directive 2012/29/ EU. Between 2005 and 2016, the Foundation worked on 281 cases involving 561 individuals, of whom 41% were minors, 42% women and 17% men, and a total amount of €2,283,143 has been made available to victims or members of their families.

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widespread, the Forum has been stepping up its work and exchanges of knowledge in this area. “Today, we have to see cyberspace as being a continuation of public space and, as such, local authorities need to take an interest in it,” analyses Elizabeth Johnston. “It’s still quite a grey area because this is new territory as regards risks, but also as regards opportunities for prevention. For example, school bullying and harassment of women take place in cyber space. This is why anyone involved in prevention has Local authorities to engage with this space, to deal with risks but also to get across prevenalso need to ensure tion messages because they can reach new audiences and help them gain better access to their rights.” that they take ac-

count of all forms of radicalisation.

Preventing violent radicalisation 54

Although States and local authorities deem preventing violent radicalisation to be a high priority and allocate considerable human and financial resources to counter-terrorism, it is generally conceded that violent radicalisation is a generational phenomenon that is probably going to persist for a couple or so decades.

The intense exchanges on this theme within the Forum and Efus’ extensive work and commitment to projects3 with European authorities show how a consensus exists on a certain number of priorities within the Forum’s community. To combat violent radicalism local prevention is essential; local authorities need to play a major role because they are targeted by acts of violent extremism which in many instances take root in their territory, and so they need to be closely associated with national and transnational policies (in particular European) which aim to deal with this phenomenon. One response is to counter radicalisation at its roots, by taking action in advance and working with individuals potentially vulnerable to extremist messages. Local authorities also need to ensure that they take account of all forms of radicalisation, whether religious, political or ideological.

Chris Williams, special advisor to the British Home Office on its counter-terrorism pro-

3 Both LIAISE projects should be mentioned here: the first ran from 2014 to 2016 and gathered the cities of Augsburg (Germany), Brussels (Belgium), Düsseldorf (Germany), Liege (Belgium), L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Spain), Malmö (Sweden), Reggio Emilia (Italy) and Vilvorde (Belgium), as well as the British think tank the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and the German association Ufuq. de. In January 2016, LIAISE 2 started for a two-year period; working on this project are 29 partner organisations from ten countries, 18 cities and three regions, as well as four national Forums and three thematic NGOs.

gramme Prevent, foresees that in the future “there will be a greater focus on managing vulnerability – whether radicalisation, child sexual exploitation, grooming, or other forms of harm. I think we will move to a system to better identify vulnerable people and seek to protect them before they become victims. I’m seeing work of this predictive nature begin already.”

Strengthening social cohesion Of the future trends which keep coming up for discussion within the Forum, there is one that emerges as being of vital importance and about which everyone is in agreement: the need to work to strengthen social cohesion. This is not a new issue; it has underpinned the Forum’s entire work since its creation. However, it has taken on a new dimension in light of recent developments such “Racism is on the as the acceleration and magnitude of migratory increase in Europe movements – linked to poverty, war, the brutality of and it is becoming regimes in power in certain countries and also more recently to climate change which impoverishes the more difficult to countries of emigration –, as well as the ageing of receive refugees Europe’s population. despite some For Jean-Pierre Balduyck this means that “racism is exemplary work.” on the increase in Europe and it is becoming more difficult to receive refugees despite some exemplary work. Anyone who is excluded from our society is an easy target for those who exploit poverty and engineer violence.” He says “this is why what the European Forum is trying to do is still absolutely relevant and still

Amiens: a “Citizenship Space” In 2016, to strengthen the notion of public service, the City of Amiens (France) introduced a “Citizenship Space” (Espace Citoyenneté) where residents, associations, professionals and institutions can find information on their rights as citizens and be directed to the relevant departments. Housed in a dedicated centre in the city, this citizenship space provides a reception service, and information and advice for anyone interested in citizenship issues. It organises communication, education and awareness-raising actions and provides information leaflets. Various prevention schemes and partnerships are networked and coordinated here through workshops and conferences held either in the centre or elsewhere.

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as necessary if we are going to create the society we want.”

According to Gilles Mahieu, “the great difficulty will lie in maintaining an approach which promotes the need for social cohesion, while at the same time factors for social individuation which are related, inter alia, to the use of social networks are tending to change our social models in Europe (for example the Rhineland model).”

In particular, on several occasions over recent years Efus has taken a stand with regard to the reception of refugees, specifically through its Executive Committee resolutions4. It has reasserted that this is not a security but a humanitarian issue and it has also called upon Europe to support those European local authorities which find themselves left to control large migratory flows, particularly in southern countries such as Malta, Italy and Greece.

In a broader sense, Efus members and partners see the growing inequality gap which has been widening since the 2008 economic crisis as a danger to social cohesion – and with it security – and therefore they believe that to increase social cohesion local authorities will have to step up their policies and “In the next few schemes. Jesús Solores thinks that “in recent years, city halls have done years, this trend to- much to regulate public-spiritedness and communities living side by wards conflict will side, and it is vital that this is encouraged since our society has a tendenbe influenced by the cy to fragment and turn in on itself. For this reason active, collaborative relationships between administrations, schools, courts, companies and growing social and cultural complexity citizen associations need to be created.”

Josep Lahosa goes further: “In the next few years, this trend towards of urban life.” conflict will be influenced by the growing social and cultural complexity of city life. Increased economic, social and political immigration combined with an ageing population is going to lower tolerance levels and increase levels of intransigence and xenophobia. These elements will coincide with a reduced capacity for cohesion from

4 Resolutions: “Taking responsibility for migrants should be realised on a European scale” 2011, and “Efus calls for the European Union to support local authorities in welcoming and integrating migrants”, 2013.

traditional socialisation structures – family, unions, political organisations – and this could lead to rising tensions in cities.”

The ageing populaLahosa is giving voice here to a concern shared by the vast majority, if not all, of the network’s members with regard to the ageing population. tion is a phenomThis is a phenomenon which affects authorities directly, and many have enon that affects already adapted their services, not only to give senior citizens a greater authorities directly, sense of security but also to encourage them to protect themselves more and many have aleffectively (for example against fraud) and take part in the life of their ready adapted their community. It was at the suggestion of the Government of Catalonia services. and the City of Matosinhos that in 2014 Efus set up a working group to look at this theme. This group shares information and promising Reflecting on the potential of practices and considers the changes which will be required in the intergenerational relationships future since, according to Eurostat, by 2080 28.7 % of the EU population will be aged over 65 whereas in 2016 it was 18.9 %. and encouraging new forms of “This demographic shift must lead us to reflect on intergeneramutual aid between older and tional relationships and harness their potential, encouraging new younger members of society. forms of mutual aid such as older members of society mentoring the youngest ones, and organising dialogue between groups which may be apprehensive and have different expectations, in particular in the public space,” explains Elizabeth Johnston.

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Building inclusive cities

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Faced with these challenges which may appear insurmountable, especially as they are due to systemic trends with multiple origins and which no one can control, what are cities and networks such as the Forum able to do? As far as the Forum is concerned, it could be said that it has provided an answer with all its activities, A single word programmes, the positions it takes and the work it does with cities and sums up both the national and transnational bodies. principle on which A single word sums up both the principle on which Efus was founded Efus was founded and the source of inspiration for everything it does: inclusiveness. But what does this mean? For the Forum, it means viewing security as a and the source common good that authorities (national and local) must preserve while of inspiration for respecting human rights, in order to build cities where each one can everything it does: ďŹ nd their place, regardless of their origins, culture, gender or age. The inclusiveness Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union5 forms the bedrock of any urban security policy and in its preamble it states: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Conscious of its spiritual and moral heritage, the Union is founded on the indivisible, universal values of human dignity, freedom, equality and solidarity; it The Charter of Fundamental is based on the principles of democracy and the rule of law. It Rights of the European Union places the individual at the heart of its activities, by establishing forms the bedrock of any urban the citizenship of the Union and by creating an area for freedom, security policy. security and justice.â&#x20AC;?

Everything is said here, although the Forum would add that this area must also protect 5 Source: www. citizens who are not of EU origin but who live here. europarl.europa This is why security, understood in the sense of common good with respect for human .eu/charter/pdf rights, can only be co-produced by society as a whole and cannot be left solely in the /text_en.pdf

hands of state bodies intent on control, sanction or repression (although these aspects are also necessary). In recent years, assisted by communication technologies, citizen movements have appeared throughout Europe and across the world which are reappropriating the public stage in a different way: in a horizontal, spontaneous and shared way. One of the features of such movements is that they share information and take action beyond borders, while at the same time focusing on local action.

We can then both imagine and hope that in 2047, when the Forum will be celebrating its 60th anniversary, it will have become a space for dialogue and exchange that brings together not only local authorities but also many different citizen movements, vigilant about respecting human rights and directly invested in making their why security, cities ever more tolerant, peaceful and safe â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in a word inclusive.

This is understood in the sense of common good with respect for human rights, can only be coproduced by society as a whole.

> We would like to debate further on these themes in the online version of this publication and we encourage you to contribute your thoughts and experiences and read the full version of the interviews collected for this book at www.efus.eu/30-years

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Juan Berrio

is a Spanish illustrator and author of comics. He lives in Madrid. He has contributed to leading international magazines such as Elle, Marie-Claire, and GQ, as well as to prominent Spanish newspapers such as El País, El Periódico de Catalunya and ABC. As an author, Juan Berrio writes and draws comics that are full of wit and charm about daily life in big cities such as Madrid. He has received the FNAC- Sins Entido Graphic Novel Prize, in 2012, and was finalist for the National Comic Prize of Spain, in 2011.

www.juanberrio.es