4.1. Correctly assessing the situation and needs on the ground

The work carried out through the PACTESUR project confirmed what Efus has been advocating for 35 years: assessing the “security landscape” of a city through a safety audit is indispensable prior to designing urban security policies and measures. Indeed, it is also one the five elements of Efus’ Strategic Approach to Urban Security, including strategy creation, action, evaluation and the mobilisation of different stakeholders.

As regards public spaces in particular, such an audit should also include an evaluation of their vulnerabilities32. Furthermore, any new intervention must be carefully planned, involving all the relevant stakeholders besides municipal services and police, including local communities and businesses as well as groups that are usually under-represented or rarely in contact with public institutions33.

What is a safety audit?

A safety audit is a systematic analysis undertaken to gain an understanding of the crime and victimisation problems in a city or a chosen area, identify assets and resources for preventive activity as well as the priorities that should be assigned to crime prevention, and to shape a security strategy34

32- Efus (2016), Methods and Tools for a Strategic Approach to Urban Security.

33- Safety audits are only complete when different and often-neglected perceptions of security held by different groups within a city are taken into account. Within Efus, the Women in Cities Initiative (WICI) will accompany local and regional authorities that wish to carry out gendered safety audits in their cities or other chosen areas, which includes choosing the right method, the area of focus, and guidance in implementing the chosen audit methodology. WICI also aims to conduct in-depth work in gender inclusivity in local security forces.

34- Efus (2007), Local Safety Audits: A Compendium of International Practice.

Threats can come in many different forms and can occur in many different types of public places and at different times. Assessing the risks for a specific location therefore should not occur once, but instead be a continuous assessment of the current situation and risk levels. Risk assessment involves three consecutive processes35:

Risk identification (identifying threats and threat scenarios).

Risk analysis (determining consequences, probabilities, risk levels and vulnerabilities).

Risk evaluation (determining priorities, risk treatment actions, risk acceptance).

The Manual for Vulnerability Assessment

In order to precisely identify and evaluate the vulnerabilities of a given public space to terrorist and other threats, local authorities can use the Manual for Vulnerability Assessment developed through the PRoTECT project,36 in which Efus was a partner and discussed it with the PACTESUR partners in several meetings.

The manual aims to help municipal staff responsible for safety and security in public spaces and their stakeholders to identify the vulnerabilities of a given public space to different types of terrorist attacks. It is based on the European Union’s Vulnerability Assessment Tool (EU VAT), which was developed by the Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs as part of the European Commission’s efforts to support Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) in the protection of public spaces.

The EU VAT assists local authorities or other relevant stakeholders in performing a number of defined steps in order to conduct a vulnerability assessment for a specific Public Space of Interest (PSoI) against a specific terrorist threat. It lists the probable threats depending on the type of public space that is being considered and the type of activities taking place there, for example whether it’s a square, a train station, or a shopping centre, etc. The types of threats considered can be an armed attack, a ram-vehicle attack, or chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear (CBRN) threats, for example. The Assessment Tool then produces a risk matrix that allows to consequently formulate adapted risk treatment measures.

35- Efus, PRoTECT (2020). Deliverable 2.1. EU VAT manual. 36- Led by the Dutch Institute for Technology, Safety and Security (DITSS), PRoTECT (November 2018–June 2021) sought to provide local authorities with tools, technology, training and field demonstrations to improve their capacity to assess the level of safety in a given place or situation, as well as the measures taken to strengthen their safety, prevent a terrorist attack and mitigate its consequences.

Three other concise and easy-to-read factsheets from the PRoTECT project on vulnerability assessments are available to local authorities and practitioners: Preparing a Vulnerability Assessment; How to Use/ Fill In the Record Template, and Conducting a Vulnerability Assessment.

There is also abundant information on the European Commission’s website, under the topic “Protection of Public Spaces”, such as an article on Terrorism Risk Assessment of Public Spaces for Practitioners, which gives a reader-friendly and detailed review of available knowledge and resources.

When the EU VAT addresses terrorist threats, public spaces are also vulnerable to other types of threats. Led by Efus, the Secu4All project has developed a specific training module on self-vulnerability assessments of non-terrorist threats. Via practical exercises and examples, trainees can apply the risk identification process outlined in the EU VAT to other types of criminal threats or risks in a given public space (incivilities, sexual harassments, riots, etc).

In practice: protection against vehicle ramming in Munich, Germany

The capital of Bavaria (Germany), the City of Munich is home to about 1.5 million people and hosts many large events, in particular the world-famous Oktoberfest. Due to the rise in vehicle attacks on public spaces across Europe in pre-pandemic years, the City Council decided in 2018 to secure public spaces and pedestrian areas across the city.

The main focus was to do so while maintaining, or even enhancing, their attractiveness and accessibility, thus putting emphasis on invisible barriers. Wherever possible, street furniture like benches and planters were preferred to purely technical systems like bollards. All systems need to have a crash test rating.

In the preparatory phase, the Department of Security and Public Order, the local police and the fire brigade evaluated all relevant public spaces, prioritising them according to:

• Number of visitors/day.

• Number of events/year.

• Local, regional, national or worldwide popularity and symbolism.

• Accessibility by car/protection measures.

The evaluation encompassed an analysis of the relevant places, both tabletop and on site, in a multi-stakeholder approach (including most municipal departments, local police, public transport, etc.). Already existing (natural) barriers, rights of way, necessary access for police, first responders and/or municipal services, interdependencies with other places, current use, future development plans, etc., were evaluated and a Vehicle Dynamics Assessment (i.e. profiling the vulnerabilities of a given route or space to a vehicle attack) was commissioned.

> More information in the Munich Practice Sheet here.