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Date: April 18, 2024 Thu
Time: 4:14 am
Time: 4:14 am
Results for cities
4 results foundAuthor: Williams, Naomi Title: 100 Promising Practices on Safer Cities: Collation of Urban Safety Practices Summary: As crime and violence becomes an even greater concern for residents in urban areas globally, two general approaches have been developed to address this scourge. On one hand, national governments have attempted to reinforce security through repression. These repressive measures include increasing police manpower, increasing the term of prison sentences, and applying repressive measures which are difficult to administer and at the same time questionable, e.g. "zero tolerance". Such measures can also include curfews for minors or the lowering of the age of legal responsibility. The second approach favours prevention in addition to repression. This can be undertaken in two ways. One way involves the centralisation of the fight against insecurity by making police officers the key players in the matter and subordinating the prevention' practitioners to them. The other tends to decentralise the fight through the delegation to the local authorities of the leadership through a partnership between civil associations in which the police can participate. It should be noted that in the two approaches, one often sees police reform applied in parallel to the implementation of preventive actions. While the repressive approach has the advantage of having immediate effects which can satisfy the short-term demands of public opinion and the needs for effectiveness of the political class, it is clearly evident, however, that the cost of repression is much higher than that of prevention and that prevention has a long term and broad range of effects on quality of life. A social call for safer cities and urban spaces is nowadays clearly voiced. Such a demand concerns directly all those who are responsible for urban development projects. Bearing this in mind, UN-Habitat has embarked on the progressive development of an urban safety approach that builds on a culture of prevention within a sustainable human settlement and more specifically a sustainable urban development agenda The development of this urban approach to crime and violence prevention reveals that the principles governing the layout, functionality and management of streets and urban spaces that determine quality of urban life are close to those that contribute to feelings of safety of urban users. That is why urban safety has become an accepted goal of urban development projects and has provided local authorities and urban stakeholders with a great opportunity to take advantage of the Safer Cities approach to change the face of cities for the better - to produce better quality of life for urban residents, to enhance values of citizenship and social cohesion and to create liveable urban environments. But equally, without documenting lessons from practice on the application of the prevention approach at the local level, there is an enormous risk that urban stakeholders continue to apply the prevention models of two decades ago that have achieved little impact due to their design and lack of systematization - consequently the scourge of crime and violence continues to perpetuate itself in those cities and communities and more segregated urban communities continue to be produced offering no social context or cohesion, no new hopes or possibilities for the most vulnerable groups in the society. There is plenty of evidence about the right and wrong ways to go about the prevention and reduction of urban crime and violence and there is a gathering consensus that the way forward is enhancing multi-dimensional, multi-stakeholder, integrated and holistic approaches to urban safety. Yet there is still not much debate and application of the principles of this approach to urban safety to address the problem of delivery of urban safety for all. The problem of delivery is multifaceted, however two key aspects can be underlined: the weak institutional capacity of local government in many countries often manifested by bad urban governance, planning and management practices; and the lack of political will to decentralize national security policies to the institutions of local government, often seeing local as the interface of the police station with local communities. Coupled with this, is the fact that in the face of rising crime and violence, many local authorities resort to short term quick win actions as opposed to long term social prevention measures which many suspect as more costly to plan and develop. In addition, planning authorities are not well enough informed about the multi-sectoral benefits which are associated with holistic approaches on the prevention of urban crime and enhancement of urban safety, to incorporate these more enlightened principles more robustly in their urban planning, urban management and urban governance principles, nor confident enough to work to actively implement this type of safety-conscious urban development. Accordingly, this report, which presents the case for urban safety, has been written with two audiences in mind - public authorities on the one hand and urban stakeholders on the other hand. The goal of this report is not to be prescriptive but rather to foster an understanding of how the safer cities model has evolved from practice and to provide a source of reference for the elaboration of UN Guidelines on Safer Cities. The 100 practices have been classified into 5 categories : - YOUTH SAFETY PRACTICES - GENDER SAFETY PRACTICES - URBAN DEVELOPMENT SAFETY PRACTICES - COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION SAFETY PRACTICES - POLICING & SECURITY SAFETY PRACTICES - GOVERNANCE SAFETY PRACTICES Details: s.l.:Global Network of Safer Cities, 2014. 214p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 11, 2015 at: http://efus.eu/files/2014/12/100-Promising-Practices-on-Safer-Cities-1-1.pdf Year: 2014 Country: International URL: http://efus.eu/files/2014/12/100-Promising-Practices-on-Safer-Cities-1-1.pdf Shelf Number: 134591 Keywords: CitiesCrime PreventionUrban Areas (International)Urban Crime |
Author: Economist Intelligence Unit Title: Safe Cities Index 2017: Security in a rapidly urbanising world Summary: In many respects it's the very success of cities, in their role as global social and economic hubs, that makes them more vulnerable. As rural residents head for the city in developing countries-which for purposes here we define as non-OECD countries, with the exception of Singapore-and wealthy global capitals draw in international talent, vast demographic shifts are creating cities with previously unimagined population sizes. In 2016, there were 31 megacities-cities with more than 10m inhabitants. This is projected to rise to 41 by 2030. And size matters. While cities generate economic activity, the security challenges they face expand and intensify as their populations rise. These include growing pressure on housing supply (prompting the spread of slums) and services such as healthcare, transport, and water and power infrastructure. Man-made risks are also growing. As tragic recent events in European cities such as London, Paris and Barcelona have demonstrated, high profile, wealthy urban centres are becoming targets for terrorist activities. And as income divides widen, growing inequalities can create tensions that contribute to violent outbursts such as the 2011 London riots. Meanwhile, another major shift has come to the fore: the rapid deployment of digital technologies in pursuit of the so-called "smart city". The technologies no doubt bring benefits. As part of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, sensors collect and wirelessly transmit data from physical objects, delivering new insights into city operations and permitting remote and more efficient management of infrastructure and services. Connecting apartments and office buildings to the electricity grid via smart meters, for example, delivers energy efficiency and cost savings. And with the spread of closed-circuit televisions (CCTVs) and webcams around cities, technologies such as artificial intelligence and data analytics can greatly enhance the capabilities of law enforcement agencies to combat urban crime and terrorism. Yet the rush to embrace smart city technologies also creates vulnerabilities if investments in digital technologies are not accompanied by commensurate investments in cyber security. Wealthy cities are making investments, albeit to varying degrees, but security often comes lower on the list of spending priorities for cities with already stretched finances. The consequences of neglecting cyber security could be dire. For example, if hackers were to shut down the power supply, an entire city would be left in chaos. This prospect is something city officials now need to plan against. Cities are also defined by the complex, interlinked nature of their systems and infrastructure. This complexity has a bearing on safety. For example, experts are uncovering links between the quality of housing and the health of citizens. And while terrorist attacks are what make headlines, traffic accidents are a greater day-to-day danger for urban residents. Natural forces are also coming in to play as climate change poses new risks to cities, with extreme weather events becoming an even greater threat, as illustrated by the devastation Hurricane Harvey just delivered to Houston, Texas. The 2017 Safe Cities Index retains the four categories of security from the 2015 version- digital, health, infrastructure and physical. However, we have added six new indicators and expanded the index to cover 60 cities, up from 50 in 2015. Details: London: The Economist, 2017. 44p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 2, 2018 at: https://dkf1ato8y5dsg.cloudfront.net/uploads/5/82/safe-cities-index-eng-web.pdf Year: 2017 Country: International URL: https://dkf1ato8y5dsg.cloudfront.net/uploads/5/82/safe-cities-index-eng-web.pdf Shelf Number: 148969 Keywords: CitiesCybersecuritySecurityUrban AreasUrban Crime |
Author: Economist Intelligence Unit Title: Safe Cities Index 2015: Assessing urban security in the digital age Summary: Cities are already home to a majority of people on the planet. The current level of urbanisation ranges from 82% of the population in North America to 40% in Africa. But all regions are expected to follow this trend towards greater urbanisation over the next three decades. Lagos, the most populous city Nigeria, is predicted to double in size in the next 15 years. However, cities should not take continued population growth for granted. As the UN's latest World Urbanisation Prospects study points out, some cities have experienced population decline because of, among other things, low fertility rates, economic contraction and natural disasters. The population of Seoul, the capital of South Korea, has shrunk by 800,000 since 1990. Likewise, the safety of cities can ebb and flow. New York recorded a record high of 2,245 homicides in 1990, equating to six murders per day. Since then the population has grown by over 1m people, while homicide rates have fallen. The murder rate in 2013 stood at 335, a historic low, moving New York below Chicago-a city with under one-third of New York's population. As some threats recede, others mature. The frequency of terrorism and natural disasters has changed the nature of urban safety: power, communications and transport systems must be robust and able to withstand new external shocks. Meanwhile, new risks emerge. Cyber risk has accompanied the advent of the digital age. Urban safety is therefore a critical issue that is set to become even more important over time. Securing public safety means addressing a wide-and evolving-range of risks. The Safe Cities Index aims to capture this complexity. The Index tracks the relative safety of a city across four categories: digital security, health security, infrastructure safety and personal safety. The Index's key findings include the following. l Tokyo tops the overall ranking. The world's most populous city is also the safest in the Index. The Japanese capital performs most strongly in the digital security category, three points ahead of Singapore in second place. Meanwhile, Jakarta is at the bottom of the list of 50 cities in the Index. The Indonesian capital only rises out of the bottom five places in the health security category (44). l Safety is closely linked to wealth and economic development. Unsurprisingly, a division emerges in the Index between cities in developed markets, which tend to fall into the top half of the overall list, and cities in developing markets, which appear in the bottom half. Significant gaps in safety exist along these lines within regions. Rich Asian cities (Tokyo, Singapore and Osaka) occupy the top three positions in the Index, while poorer neighbours (Ho Chi Minh City and Jakarta) fill two of the bottom three positions. l However, wealth and ample resources are no guarantee of urban safety. Four of the five Middle Eastern cities in the Index are considered high-income, but only one makes it into the top half of the Index: at 25 Abu Dhabi is 21 places above Riyadh at number 46. Similar divides between cities of comparable economic status exist elsewhere. Seoul is 23 positions below Tokyo in the overall ranking (and 46 places separate the two on digital security). l US cities perform most strongly in the digital security category, while Europe struggles. New York is the only US city to make it into the top ten of the overall index (at 10). However, it is third for digital security, with three of the four other US cities in the Index (Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago) joining it in the top ten. Meanwhile, European cities perform relatively poorly. London, at 16, is the highest-ranking European entry in the digital security index; Rome is the lowest, at 35. l Leaders in digital security must not overlook real-world risks. Los Angeles falls from 6th place in digital security to 23rd for personal safety. San Francisco suffers a similar drop, falling from 8th to 21st. For these cities-both home to high-tech industries-a focus on technology and cyber security does not seem to be matched by success in combating physical crime. Urban safety initiatives need to straddle the digital and physical realms as the divide between them blurs. l Technology is now on the frontline of urban safety, alongside people. Data are being used to tackle crime, monitor infrastructure and limit the spread of disease. As some cities pursue smarter methods of preventing- rather than simply reacting to-these diverse security threats, a lack of data in emerging markets could exacerbate the urban safety divide between rich and poor. Nonetheless, investment in traditional safety methods, such as bolstering police visibility, continues to deliver positive results from Spain to South Africa. l Collaboration on safety is critical in a complex urban environment. Now that a growing number of essential systems are interconnected, city experts stress the need to bring together representatives from government, business and the community before threats to safety and security strike. Some cities have appointed an official to co-ordinate this citywide resilience. With the evolution of online threats transcending geographical boundaries, such co-ordination will increasingly be called for between cities. l Being statistically safe is not the same as feeling safe. Out of the 50 cities, only Zurich and Mexico City get the same rank in the overall index as they do in the indicator that measures the perception of safety among their citizens. Urban citizens in the US, for instance, tend to feel less safe than they should, based on their city's position in the Index. The challenge for city leaders is to translate progress on safety into changing public perceptions. But cities also aspire to be attractive places to live in. So smart solutions, such as intelligent lighting, should be pursued over ubiquitous cameras or gated communities. Details: London: The Economist, 2015. 42p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 5, 2018 at: https://dkf1ato8y5dsg.cloudfront.net/uploads/5/82/eiu-safe-cities-index-2015-white-paper-1.pdf Year: 2015 Country: International URL: https://dkf1ato8y5dsg.cloudfront.net/uploads/5/82/eiu-safe-cities-index-2015-white-paper-1.pdf Shelf Number: 148988 Keywords: Cities Cybersecurity SecurityUrban Areas Urban Crime |
Author: Commins, Stephen Title: From Urban Fragility to Urban Stability Summary: HIGHLIGHTS - The share of Africa's urban residents living in slums is steadily rising, an outgrowth of the continent's rapidly expanding population. Meanwhile, residents of African cities report among the highest levels of fear of violence in the world. - The inability of government institutions to resolve or at least mitigate conflicts over land, property rights, and services for urban residents, coupled with either absent or heavy-handed responses of security agencies in African slums, is contributing to a growing mistrust of African security and justice institutions. - Integrated urban development strategies - involving local government, police, justice institutions, the private sector, and youth - are necessary to build trust and adapt policies that strengthen economic opportunities, social cohesion, and security in Africa's cities. Details: Los Angelos, California: Africa Center for Strategic Studies, 2018. 11p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 18, 2019 at: https://africacenter.org/publication/from-urban-fragility-to-urban-stability/ Year: 2018 Country: Africa URL: https://africacenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/ASB35EN-From-Urban-Fragility-to-Urban-Stability.pdf Shelf Number: 154655 Keywords: AfricaCitiesConflicts over LandFear of CrimeLand GovernanceProperty RightsRule of LawSecurity SectorUrban |