Case study: simulating crisis situations for local police forces

“The biggest takeaway is that we are all facing very similar issues. By being together with other police units and learning new procedures and protocols from them, I feel I’m better prepared to fulfil my duties and improve the safety and security of my city.”

In order to improve the preparedness and response of law enforcement and first responders, it is recommended to organise practical exercises and joint training among local authorities, law enforcement, civil protection, medical emergency, private businesses, private security firms and other stakeholders.39

The PACTESUR project encouraged the development of specialised training programmes for local police officers. Three Local Police Academies were organised in the partner cities of Nice (2019), Turin (2021) and Liège (2022), whereas Xàbia organised simulation exercises of a wildfire in a peri-urban area.

Gathering local police officers from the hosting city and the project’s associated cities, these sessions held over several days included in-person and virtual practical exercises, such as an armed commando operation in a school during a shootout, or crowd management operations, or how to use virtual reality in training programmes.40 The exercises in

38- US Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Emergency Management Institute (FEMA), Types and Training and Exercises.

39- Council of the European Union (2021). Council Conclusions on the Protection of Public Spaces of 7 June 2021.

Turin and Xàbia also showed that drones can efficiently be used to prevent natural and technological risks, as well as to assist people affected by a crisis, whatever its type41.

The simulation exercises, which involved not only local authorities and first responders (fire brigade, local police, gendarmerie, ambulance, etc.) but also citizens, generated fruitful exchanges among peers who were able to see first-hand how other stakeholders do it. For instance, many European attendees were impressed by the Liège specialised fire brigade unit that is tasked with evacuating the wounded and transferring them to a hospital while an intervention is still going on. Indeed, many European cities lack this type of service. The Liège police, together with the Belgian federal police, also shared with European colleagues their doctrine of intervention in case of a problem in a public space, which is based on dialogue and conflict resolution. It chimes with Police Scotland’s rights-based approach, whereby they also consider their duty to protect the right to protest42

Such approaches, which are still relatively novel, are equally applied to festive gatherings and sports competitions. Police discuss with event organisers how to best ensure things go smoothly and maintain dialogue throughout the event to avoid the use of “hard” deterrents such as firefighting equipment or tear gas. An exercise was conducted in Liège in a scenario where football supporters were trying to occupy a public thoroughfare in spite of authorities’ appeal for calm.

The success of the Turin Police Academy led to another round of exercises this time for Piemonte local police officers

The Turin Local Police Academy was attended by about 60 police officers and commanders of various European municipalities, as well as representatives of local police forces from the Piemonte region.

40- The exercises were part of the European Week of Security organised by the project in Nice in 2019 and Liège in 2022. The Turin Police Academy was organised in the framework of the third Local Governance workshop in 2021

41- See also Chapter 3, The use of technologies for protecting public spaces: efficient but not sufficient.

42- See also In practice: Police Scotland and the management of the United Nations climate summit (COP26), Glasgow, November 2021

Given the positive feedback from participants, two PACTESUR partners, ANCI Piemonte and Turin decided to expand the training to Piedmont region local police forces. Two sessions were held in 2022 as part of the PACTESUR programme, and six other sessions were planned (at the time of writing) for 2023, with the contribution of the region.

In practice: a training programme on security in public spaces for a multistakeholder local partnership

The Secu4All project aims to empower local and regional authorities with theoretical knowledge and practical tools to ensure the security of public spaces and the protection of soft targets (i.e. sports venues, shopping centres, schools…) against potential threats.

Theoretical and practical modules were developed to increase the knowledge and skills of local actors across four dimensions:

Methods and tools to identify, analyse, and assess vulnerabilities in local public spaces and soft targets.

Reducing crime and citizens’ feeling of insecurity by means of urban planning, design and management of public spaces.

Use of innovative technologies to enhance the protection of public spaces and their ethical implications.

Crisis communication with relevant stakeholders and citizens (before, during and after a crisis).

> The Secu4All platform will be available in June 2023.

Cross-border cooperation and assistance

There is little cross-border cooperation among European countries regarding the management of risks and natural disasters, notably because the notion of communal or municipal territory is different in each Member State. However, cooperation and assistance between rural and urban jurisdictions, between cities, and between neighbouring countries can be crucial when an incident happens in a border zone and requires the intervention of emergency responders from both sides of the border.

Border towns can benefit from pooling their resources in case of a major incident, natural disaster or terrorist attack affecting their public spaces. They can also lobby their national authorities to conclude cooperation agreements with neighbouring countries regarding the mobilisation of their financial and human resources in case of a crisis, as well as the sharing of information.

For example, in France and Belgium, mayors are required by law to publish security plans detailing how emergency responders would intervene in case of a natural disaster, an industrial accident or a terrorist attack. These plans must specify the responsibilities of each level of governance, whether local, regional, national, and, in the case of border regions, transnational43. This is not the case in other European countries such as the United Kingdom or Denmark, where mayors have a largely honorific function (except in the UK in the case of some cities such as London and Manchester) and do not have the power to take decisions regarding security and civil protection. This makes it more difficult to establish intervention protocols governing the organisation of a common response from municipalities and police forces from different European countries.

43- See Annex 3 for a more detailed description on cross-border cooperation.