Campus Fryslân engaged in ‘Cutting Crime Impact’

Six European Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) will cooperate closely with organisations from across Europe and security experts in tackling high impact crimes such as physical and sexual assault, burglary and vandalism. This research project is called Cutting Crime Impact (CCI) in which the Dutch police and University of Groningen/Campus Fryslân are working together to develop innovative ways of community policing. The researchers and experts will support LEAs in investigating how key roles and services are delivered by each participating police force. This will enable the design and development of practical toolkits tailored to the needs of LEAs. This effort is coordinated by the Design Against Crime Solution Centre at the University of Salford in the United Kingdom.

Campus Fryslân will provide expertise needed when deploying new technologies such as ‘predictive policing’ (simulation software used by LEAs to work more efficiently), make research-informed decisions on how to design public space to be more secure and to improve the feeling of security of citizens in municipalities. Particularly, the team of Campus Fryslân will provide legal and ethical input in order to ensure that the innovation in the LEA activities is made on the basis of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The work is carried out to discover innovative means which make it possible to have a secure environment which is also designed to enjoy individual human rights, such as privacy.  

Dr. Caroline Davey, Director of the Design Against Crime Solution Centre and CCI Project Lead said: “This project will bring real evidence-based results in order to help LEAs tackle significant crime and insecurity issues.” The project will be carried out until 2021 and has a €3.1Million funding which has been awarded by the European Commission Horizon 2020 Security Research Programme.

Prof. Andrej Zwitter, Dean of the University College of Campus Fryslân and Director of the Data Research Centre stated: “The future of fighting crime is digital, preventive and design-thinking. This project has it all. It is a great privilege to bring together practitioners, academics, and experts in the field.”