A multidisciplinary, cross-sector approach to the protection of public spaces

“First, adopt an open, transdisciplinary, cross-sector approach to the understanding of the problem, not topdown, not just tech, not expert only. Think of a public space as a canvas that is never completely white or neutral. Start with understanding the context and take into account all of it: physical site specs, recent history, background stories, trauma, cultural identity and iconic markers that make it a memorable space.”

Laetitia

Design Impact

and Instructor, Associate Partner of PACTESUR17

For 35 years, Efus has been advocating the co-production of security policies involving a wide range of local stakeholders from the public and private sector as well as citizen participation.

Public spaces require that cities and local governments work in partnership with different stakeholders and organisations, which should include urban planners, first responders, mobility services, local businesses, academia and civil society. Indeed, the security of public spaces is not only the prerogative of the police, nor just a matter of using more technology or exclusively reserved to specialists. Rather, it is the responsibility of a variety of actors representing different disciplines and backgrounds.

The need for a multi-stakeholder and interdisciplinary approach to urban public spaces is highlighted by the very nature of the PACTESUR project, which involved not only partner cities and regions, but also a working group of associated cities18 and an Expert Advisory Committee

17- Laetitia Wolff is a design impact consultant and instructor. She led the partnership-based course between the Sustainable Design School of Nice (now called Besign School) and the PACTESUR project, introducing an experimental action-research and a creative, human-centred design approach to security. See also Chapter 2, Security by Design: how to render public spaces both safe and open to all

18- The PACTESUR project included a working group of 11 associated cities (Athens, Edinburgh, Essen, Gdańsk, Leeds, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Munich, Riga and Xàbia) that had specific issues and knowledge on the protection of public spaces.

(EAC), a group of 14 specialists from various disciplines including architects, cultural geographers, security and cross-border cooperation experts. It also included a partnership-based course between the Sustainable Design School of Nice (now called Besign School) and the PACTESUR project, which focused its research on the need to apply human-centred design approaches to security. Apart from discussing conventional or protective measures such as policing, technology, bollards or barriers, the PACTESUR project explored what could be termed as soft measures aimed at encouraging citizens to appropriate such spaces through art, the design itself of these spaces, or the involvement of local businesses and civil society organisations. The aim is to ensure that these spaces are inhabited, lively and attractive, which makes them reassuring, as opposed to deserted public spaces that citizens avoid because they seem abandoned, or on the contrary overly secured spaces where barriers and technology can seem daunting and deter attendance. This is an area where local authorities have plenty of margin to intervene by mobilising and coordinating a wide array of local actors from the public and private sector.

Ensuring a minimum threshold of security that enables other civic values

Adam

Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Leeds

Designing and managing safe public spaces is one of the four areas of work of the four-year, Efus-led IcARUS project, which seeks to build on 30 years of urban security policies and practices to help local security actors better anticipate and respond to security challenges.

The University of Leeds conducted a research study that assessed the trends, tensions and fault-lines that have characterised shifts over time in the design and regulation of safe public spaces across Europe and beyond19. It points out four tendencies:

1. Tendency to alter the built and physical environment so as to “design out” criminogenic opportunities; often infused with logics of “preventive exclusion”, and overt surveillance as deterrence.

2. The intervention logics have drawn attention away from the situated and contextualised features of local places – with less attention to “what works”, “where” and “for whom”. And simultaneously with little regard to which groups of people benefit from particular interventions or design features in a particular place/situation at a specific time.

3. Technological solutions outweigh human solutions in regard to addressing security concerns. There has been little attention to the intersection between social and technological processes.

4. Over-securitisation of public spaces: in the quest for security, the implementation of solutions may foster perceptions of insecurities by alerting citizens to risks, heightening sensibilities and scattering the world with visible reminders of threat.

In practice: a multi-stakeholder, comprehensive strategy to protect public spaces in Gdańsk (Poland)

In practice: a multi-stakeholder, comprehensive strategy to protect public spaces in Gdańsk (Poland)

Following the assassination of Mayor Pawel Adamowicz during a public event in 2019, the City of Gdańsk (Poland), one of PACTESUR’s 11 associated cities, developed a strategy aimed at increasing the capacity to respond to future security threats in public spaces.

Following the assassination of Mayor Pawel Adamowicz during a public event in 2019, the City of Gdańsk (Poland), one of PACTESUR’s 11 associated cities, developed a strategy aimed at increasing the capacity to respond to future security threats in public spaces.

The strategy included the rebuilding of the Municipal Crisis Management Centre, the improvement of the communication and management system, the development of a CCTV network as well as other technical and architectural elements contributing to safer public spaces.

The strategy included the rebuilding of the Municipal Crisis Management Centre, the improvement of the communication and management system, the development of a CCTV network as well as other technical and architectural elements contributing to safer public spaces.

A number of municipal and national organisations were involved in the project, including the Department for Security and Crisis Management, the municipal police, the national police, the Internal Security Agency, the Municipal Security Agency, the fire brigade, Gdańsk Real Estate, the Gdańsk Road and Greenery Authority, private security companies, anti-terrorism specialists and volunteer groups. The PACTESUR project and the experience shared by the other partner cities were a great source of inspiration for its new strategy.

This project will serve as the foundation for the whole safety management system of the city for the coming years.

A number of municipal and national organisations were involved in the project, including the Department for Security and Crisis Management, the municipal police, the national police, the Internal Security Agency, the Municipal Security Agency, the fire brigade, Gdańsk Real Estate, the Gdańsk Road and Greenery Authority, private security companies, anti-terrorism specialists and volunteer groups. The PACTESUR project and the experience shared by the other partner cities were a great source of inspiration for its new strategy.

This project will serve as the foundation for the whole safety management system of the city for the coming years.