On April 9, 2021, over 50 participants joined the first joint e-meeting of the UIA cities of Tampere, Turin and Piraeus working in the field of urban security.
The city of Tampere leads the SURE project, which focuses on the challenges of safety and security of event areas, looking to seamlessly integrate security into the surrounding urban environment and infrastructure. The project’s solution is oriented towards data- and user-driven planning and analytics, where technology takes an important role.
To-Nite, the project led by the city of Turin, focuses on perception of security and on another particular moment: the night. The project integrates a diverse array of multidisciplinary strategies, ranging from qualitative research to technology infrastructure. A key aspect of the project is the community-based action: activation, empowerment, and engagement of communities.
The city of Piraeus seeks to prevent crime and improve perception of security in two districts near the port through the BeSecure-FeelSecure initiative. The solutions proposed are focused on fostering inter-department cooperation and implementing technology-driven solutions to better monitor crime, and to improve perception through the improvement of the built environment.
While in short, all projects focus on improving security for the inhabitants of their corresponding city, each project tackles a different problem and has a different spatial scope.
During this meeting we had the opportunity to present each of our projects, our proposed strategies, the expected results and the upcoming activities.
With the aim to exchange knowledge and learn from each other, the partners of the three UIA projects clustered and discussed common approaches, challenges and initiatives regarding the security in public spaces, with the benefitable participation of the Urban Agenda for the EU.
The three projects will meet again – in person this time – at the “Security, Democracy and Cities 2021” conference on October 2021 in Nice. An event that has been organized by the common partner of BSFS and To-Nite, the European Forum for Urban Security (Efus).
