Public security in an increasingly digital age: are smart cities also safer cities?

One third of citizens surveyed in a recent Capgemini report, titled Street Smart, say they may leave their city due to the challenges they face living there, with 40% of responders citing public security as a key driver. As Figure 1 shows, citizens surveyed from London, Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds flagged public security as the major reason for leaving those cities. The report details the survey results from 10,000 citizens and 300 city officials, across 10 countries and 58 cities, and explores how smart cities could hold the key to improving urban life.^[1]

Smart cities offer alternatives to the current urban experience

A smart city is defined by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe as:

“… an innovative city that uses information and communication technologies (ICTs) and other means to improve quality of life, efficiency of urban operation and services, and competitiveness while ensuring that it meets the needs of present and future generations with respect to economic, social, cultural, and environmental aspects” ^[2]

Smart city initiatives benefit cities and attract citizens – close to 60% of citizens believe smart cities equal sustainability and better services, and just over 50% believe there will be a better quality of life.

When it comes to public security, introducing smart technology to city surveillance can help reduce crime, and 46% say it has improved neighbourhood safety. Technology can help authorities respond to emergency situations faster. In the US, the city of Oakland installed a “Gunfire locator,” with microphones positioned across the city. The microphones detect gunfire and then triangulate the position, allowing the nearest patrol car to get their quickly. Usually, the location of gunfire is detected within 30 seconds. As a result, crime rates have dropped in the areas where the solution is used. In 2012 there were 671 firearm incidents per square mile. Now, this has dropped to 228.[3],[4]

Smart cities are connected cities, and by connecting a city’s emergency services, they can also be safer cities

The importance of smart city initiatives for effective disaster management has never been more apparent than in today’s pandemic situation. Of the 300 city officials surveyed, 80% say that disaster management must be ingrained in a smart city plan.

The majority (57%) of city officials also believe that a command centre is a critical asset. These centres optimise emergency response, gathering data from various sources to issue timely warnings and provide a coordinated response to major incidents. Command centres that monitor the entire city for routine activities – such as traffic, utilities, or public security – can also easily be converted to effective command centres for emergency/disaster management.

In London, a 24-hour emergency management centre was designed to use “public and private” data to monitor London activity and keep lead agencies updated on everything from weather, terror attacks, and even transport disruption.[5] By monitoring social media in real time, agencies could gain critical seconds to respond to emergencies, even before being alerted by the public.

COVID-19 led to multiple cities using smart city initiatives to manage the crisis. For instance, the city of Bengaluru, India, repurposed its command centre within 24 hours into a corona war room. The war room was used to track patients and draw up containment plans using heat mapping technologies.[6]

Big data analytics has immense potential to make cities safer by enabling proactive and optimized policing, but public trust is crucial to any long-term success

Around the world, technology is being used to improve public security. In Singapore, an online platform named i-Witness has been launched which enabled citizens to report events such as crime incidents, traffic offences and security crises via text or multimedia files. The Singapore Police received more than 35,000 submissions through the platform.[7]

One of the public security smart city initiatives identified in the Smart Cities report was on predictive policing; whereby data is used to predict crime in the near future based on data from recent incidents (e.g. burglaries, muggings etc.). Of those surveyed, 60% of responders indicated that they would be willing to “use” such an initiative.

Predictive policing algorithms have been used by UK police forces for more than 10 years to identify and proactively police areas in a community that are more at risk of experiencing crime.[8] Algorithms have also been used to assess an individual’s risk of reoffending to support custody decision making.[9] The Avon and Somerset police force have rolled out 60 apps to assist with data-driven problem solving and reduce manual tasks. The apps use a combination of artificial intelligence and statistics to assess the likelihood of someone offending or becoming a victim. The chief constable reduction in incidents of repeat crime and anti-social behaviour to their new approach to policing.[10]

More recently, MET Police in London have trialled and deployed Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology in crowded city spaces, such as shopping malls. When a person passes through an area being surveyed, their images are streamed directly to a live facial recognition platform and cross matched with people on a “watchlist” for serious criminality.[11]

UK Police recognise the importance of harnessing digital opportunities to improve interventions, provide insight into crime locations as the future of policing.[12] As the Internet of Things continues to grow, there are unique opportunities for police around the world to increase the safety of both the public and the police themselves. In Dubai, a pilot used sensors to inform a control centre if officers had been capacitated and were lying horizontally.[13]

As the algorithms and AI underpinning these initiatives become more advanced, the need for transparency and trust among citizens becomes even more important. Technology enabled smart city initiatives have the potential to greatly improve the security of our cities, but in order to have long-term success, they must be designed within an ethical framework that is accepted by the public.

Being able to quantify benefits is key to overcoming funding hurdles and accelerating smart city initiatives

When it comes to accelerating smart city initiatives, more than two-thirds of city officials identified funding smart city initiatives from the city’s budget to be a major challenge. In order to secure funding, it is crucial that benefits can be estimated and quantified. However, 67% of city officials say that a major hurdle is the lack of quantified benefits.

To set the ball rolling with smart city initiatives, city officials and citizens should work with start-ups, academic institutes, and venture capital funds with a focus on trust, innovation, and data as the key drivers. Such collaboration should strive to create a compelling smart city vision based on sustainability and resilience. It should turn city officials into entrepreneurs while ensuring that data protection and trust are built into how citizen data is gathered and used. Finally, a culture of innovation and collaboration with citizens and external entities will also be key.

To read the full research report please click here.

[1]Capgemini Research Institute, “Street Smart: Putting the citizen at the center of smart city initiatives”, July 2020

[2]UNECE-ITU, “The UNECE-IT Smart Sustainable Cities Indicators”, 14-15 December 2015

[3]Los Angeles Times, “Use of high-tech tool to locate shooters may greatly expand in California under proposed bill”, March 2017

[4]Smart City Lab, “This is how emergency systems work in a smart city”, February 2020

[5]Evening Standard, “London Watchkeeper Service: 24-hour centre to lead captial’s response to terror attacks and disasters”, December 2018

[6]The Economic Times,”45 smart city command and control centres turn into Covid-19 war rooms”, March 2020

[7]OSAC, “Singapore 2019 Crime & Safety Report,” July 2019

[8] Royal United Services Institution, “Machine Learning Algorithms and Police Decision-Making”, September 2018

[9]BBC News, “Durham Police AI to help with custody decisions”, May 2017

[10]BBC News, “Apps cut crime in Avon and Somerset, claims police chief”, January 2019

[11]The Guardian, “Met police deploy live facial recognition technology, February 2020

[12]Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, National Policing Digital Strategy 2020-2030, January 2020

[13]TechUK / The Centre for Public Safety, “Policing and the Internet of Things”, June 2017

Author

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Taylor Anderton