4.2. Building the capacities of local and regional stakeholders to minimise the impact of a crisis

Another level of protection consists of ensuring that all relevant actors (municipal teams, local and national police, tourism departments, urban planners, local businesses, operators and managers of public spaces) have the capacity to minimise the impact of a crisis and keep citizens safe.

This is called “capacity-building”, which is defined as the process of developing and strengthening the skills, instincts, abilities, processes and resources that organisations and communities need to survive, adapt and thrive in the face of pressures such as security threats37.The purpose is to equip all stakeholders with the tools they need to better perform their functions in the event of a crisis, notably through targeted, regular training.

Creating a common culture and encouraging open communication

An important aspect of capacity-building to better protect public spaces is to create a common culture among all the relevant stakeholders so that they work in harmony to prevent, respond and recover from incidents that occur in public spaces. Such common culture must be integrated into response management from the very first training, and should be developed through a continuous training process as part of a multidisciplinary approach favouring mutual learning between actors and the exchange of promising practices. For these reasons, local and regional authorities should not only encourage the creation of training programmes but also ensure they are aligned with other programmes that may exist at the national or European level.

It is important to mobilise different stakeholders and resources and to encourage open communication, both horizontally and vertically, as well as the exchange of knowledge and best practices.

Designing tailored training programmes

Each city has its specific characteristics, challenges and risks. Training programmes should thus be tailored to local specificities, but also take into account citizens’ feelings of insecurity as well as the gender perspective.

Such programmes will help familiarise operators, managers and designers of public spaces with principles governing physical security and locally specific, related administrative procedures.

Strategic, tactical, and operational objectives of a tailor-made training programme

For Preparedness

 Introducing security awareness to all relevant stakeholders.

Improving (local) governance of the relevant security providers.

Secure local communication channels, as is appropriate.

Carrying out and assisting in audits of existing situations (document threats and risks, vulnerability assessments…).

Developing a list of security competencies of public servants.

For Response

Ensuring that each stakeholder has a sufficient level of staffing and clear responsibilities in case of a crisis.

Contributing local expertise and assistance to resolving geographically-specific challenges.

Offering local communication channels to the assigned crisis management bodies, as is required.

For Recovery

Restoring and strengthening the rule of law.

Using local actors to cover the last mile of recovery assistance.

For Mitigation

Co-producing security through the involvement of all stakeholders. For all Phases

Carrying out soft power projects (e.g. interaction with local communities, mobilising local actors towards locally applicable objectives).

In practice: the Gold, Silver, Bronze structure for command and control in case of crisis, United Kingdom

In response to serious riots in London in 1985, the Metropolitan Police created the Gold, Silver, Bronze system as an efficient and flexible command and control structure. Today, it is considered a reference for an efficient distribution of tasks and responsibilities when dealing with a crisis. It provides a framework for delivering a strategic, tactical and operational response to an incident or operation.

The Gold level – the group in charge of strategy and coordination

This group is in charge of the strategic tier of command and control with multi-agency representation. This is the level where the policy, strategy and overall response frameworks are established and managed.

This group determines and communicates a clear strategic aim and objectives and reviews them regularly.

It establishes a policy framework for the overall management of the event or situation.

It prioritises the demands of the Silver group and allocates personnel and resources to meet requirements.

It coordinates direct planning and operations beyond the immediate response to facilitate the recovery process.

The Silver level – tactical coordinating group

This is the tactical tier of command and control within a multi-agency representation at which the response to an emergency is managed.

This group determines priorities for allocating available resources.

It plans and coordinates how and when tasks will be undertaken and by whom.

It obtains additional resources if required.

It assesses significant risks and uses this to inform the tasking of Bronze commanders.

It ensures the health and safety of the public and personnel at the site(s).

The Bronze level – operational coordinating group

This is the tier of command and control at which the management of “hands-on” work is undertaken at the incident site. The Bronze group(s) may be formed within a single or multi-agency representation.

This group concentrates its effort and resources on the specific tasks within its areas of responsibility.

It executes the tactical plan.

It coordinates the actions of staff on the ground.

Approaches to building a tailored programme –key recommendations

1. Evidence-based training (EBT) is a training and assessment method based on operational data that is characterised by the development and assessment of overall capability across a range of core competencies, rather than by measuring performance in individual events.

2. Gamification of training. Gamification is the process of applying game mechanics in order to increase participants’ engagement and achieve better learning results.

3. Digital educational platforms. The reach of digital platforms’ products and services is limitless. They increase benefits for users such as:

• Allowing access at any time, at any place, in any way.

• Offering the possibility of returning to any previous module to re-visit the content.

• Making the material easier to digest by employing a variety of multimedia technologies.

• Providing great flexibility of structure and content for any given instance of the training.

4. Full-scale exercises and drills. A full-scale exercise simulates a real event as closely as possible. It is a multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional, multidiscipline exercise designed to evaluate the operational capabilities of emergency management systems in a highly stressful environment that simulates actual response conditions. A drill is a coordinated, supervised exercise activity, normally used to test a single specific operation or function. It can also be used to provide training with new equipment or to practice and maintain current skills.38

5. Exchange of promising practices and lessons learnt. A multidisciplinary approach that favours mutual learning between actors and the exchange of promising practices.