Productive citizen interaction with law enforcement authorities (LEA) is at the core of all police work. Theories underlying Community Policing (CP) received new impetus with the recent advent of smartphones. Our research showed that community policing by definition (and title) varies greatly from country to country. Whereas some parts of Europe have had many decades of experience with community oriented policing, for others, the concept is relatively new and just beginning to take shape in respect to cultural sensitivities and historical relationships with law enforcement. Because of this, there cannot be a “one size fits all” approach to technological solutions that support these programs.
CITYCoP examines what are the common features and the best practices embraced by apps which may have been successful and determine why apparently promising ones failed. It then goes on to produce a uniquely European solution including a smartphone app and portal which are capable of being deployed in every European city while still retaining the “local flavour” and diversity which would appear to be a key for success.
After extensive market research and input from our law enforcement partners, we developed a solution that takes into account the needs of both the community and police, by providing a local “flavour” to each version of the app where it is offered. Based on this, we focused on creating a solution that increases communication between the community and police, with a privacy by design approach respectful of national and EU regulations. Training including use of serious games, is developed to encourage engagement in CP. CITYCoP piloted in Bucharest, Lisbon, Florence and Dublin and Kildare.
In order to achieve this CITYCoP has the following objectives:
1: To analyse the social, cultural, legal and ethical issues that affect the building of trust in community policing through technology.
2: To identify and address previous failures/limitations in the use of technology in community policing by reviewing existing practices worldwide.
3: To understand how the use of technology in community policing models is received by LEAs and citizens in selected European cities and the factors that contribute to success in terms of building trust and improving crime reporting.
4: To produce a uniquely European technical solution including a smartphone app and an on-line portal which are capable of being deployed in every European city while still retaining the “local flavour” and diversity.
5: To develop a system to TRL6 level with the aim to facilitate information sharing and trust building between citizens and LEAs and to pilot the CITYCoP system in five diverse cities - Bucharest, Lisbon, Florence, Dublin and Kildare.
6: To train LEAs and citizens through serious gaming to facilitate the right information sharing that will allow LEAs to prevent, detect and prosecute criminal behaviour efficiently.
7: To carry out a complete data protection and ethical audit of the CITYCoP system.
8: To develop a CITYCoP Toolkit that can be used by other cities inside and outside Europe which may want to adopt the CITYCoP system.
