Safer crowds in mass gatherings
Tragic attacks taking place across Europe over the past few years have often caught law enforcement agencies (LEAs) off-guard. Terrorists’ operating methods have never been so unpredictable, and any mass gathering now has authorities on edge. LEAs have a desperate need for innovative security tools and methodologies to help them face these threats. The LETS-CROWD (Law Enforcement agencies human factor methods and Toolkit for the Security and protection of CROWDs in mass gatherings) project was inspired by the European Security Model (ESM), which defines central challenges, priorities, principles and guidelines to deal with security issues within the EU. The project, which focuses on mass gatherings, has been following the ESM’s main principle to create guidelines and support tools, with emphasis being put on prevention and anticipation. Jordi Arias Martí, Project Manager at ETRA I+D and coordinator of LETS-CROWD, discusses the expected contribution of the project to making mass gathering events across Europe more secure for citizens.
What are the potential benefits of the European Security Model in handling mass gatherings?
The ESM is particularly important for the management of such events as they are a frequent target for criminal or terrorist actions. There is a need to achieve the best possible protection for people gathering in a specific area. The key point here is to deter, prevent, protect people from, pursue and effectively respond to criminal and/or terrorist actions, thus increasing the sense of security while balancing security and citizen rights.
What do you think are the main challenges to its implementation and what makes them particularly difficult to overcome? Also, how does LETS-CROWD fill these gaps?
To implement the ESM, LEAs need to be able to control the different phases of an event (planning, execution and post-execution) with a dedicated set of tools. LETS-CROWD helps them by enabling the creation of signals and the modelling of venues and incidents, as well as by including relevant information such as voice recordings, images and videos. Our Semantic Intelligence Engine (SIE) is a perfect example of LETS-CROWD’s contribution. It can gather, monitor and analyse information published online in relation to a mass gathering, before and during a given event. Our system also uses machine learning techniques for a human-centred computer vision (HCV) prototype that supports LEAs in the use of video surveillance systems.
Can you tell us more about the other tools you developed? What makes them particularly innovative?
Our main tool is the LETS-CROWD Server: agencies create an event and complement it with relevant information such as incidence, location and other information brought by specific modules. We propose a total of seven tools. Besides the SIE and HCV, we also have the Dynamic Risk Assessment (DRA) which will dynamically assess risk by processing weak signals – suspicious signs of activity that individually do not constitute a threat but can become a risk when considered together – and other varying events. The Policy Making Toolkit (PMT) will help decision-makers in defining clearance and policies for a specific event. The tool covers data management, approval, policy creation and implementation for an event. Then we have the Crowd Modelling and Planning (CMP) tool which allows users to plan ahead for crowds attending a mass gathering event, run scenarios during its execution, and use these scenarios in post-event analysis and training. The Real-Time Evacuation (RTE) tool allows LEAs to plan and find out about the potential evacuation times for crowds. It can assess the impact of a certain evacuation strategy within a few seconds. Finally, our Innovative Communication procedures (ICP-Communication toolkit) aim at raising awareness among event organisers, security officers and first responders.
How did you proceed to test these tools?
The LETS-CROWD validation process is based on the human-centred design (HCD) approach. It integrates the user’s perspective, needs and requirements into the development phases in order to collect their feedback at key points in the project’s lifecycle. As each tool is characterised by specific and unique features and components, we developed a validation toolkit to facilitate data collection during practical demonstrations. It includes several instruments, such as a validation questionnaire, a debriefing template and a requirement acceptance scale.
What were the results of these tests?
Over 60 % of LEA participants considered the LETS-CROWD tools very useful. They rather praised its usability too, with a System Usability Scale (SUS) score above the average 68 out of 100 for most tools. We also received feedback related to effectiveness: The majority of participants find LETS-CROWD’s tools effective and efficient in helping them complete their daily working tasks. Two other major feedback criteria were related to compatibility and maturity. More than 70 % of the experts found the tools compatible with already existing practices and procedures, and most tools were rated as TRL 4 or 5. This means that participants consider the main components as well-integrated and ready to be used in simulated operational environments.
What are your follow-up plans, notably with regards to commercialisation?
Some additional work must be carried out with regards to business strategy and commercialisation. A detailed market analysis will be conducted in the final stage of the project, along with a business plan with predictions for investment and revenues. Our goal is to shape the market and to engage with more end users in order to gather intelligence and attract further customer interest. Possible mechanisms include 1-1 discussions, workshops, conferences, demonstrations and targeted documents.
Countries
Spain