Summary of the sessions Wednesday 15 November

Welcome to the 2017 Security, Democracy and Cities conference! Here is a summary of the first day, Wednesday 15 November. You can follow and share memorable moments of the Conference on Twitter: #SDC2017.

Opening session • Willy Demeyer, President of Efus and Mayor of Liège • Jordi Jardí Pinyol, General Director of the Administration of Security, Government of Catalonia • Ada Colau, Mayor of Barcelona

After welcoming some 800 delegates coming from 150 local and regional authorities from Europe, Latin America, Africa, United States and Canada, Willy Demeyer mentioned the establishment of Efus. He recalls that it's in Barcelona that “everything started”, when the Council of Europe organised a conference on “urban insecurity in Europe” with the objective of examining the causes of urban insecurity and exchanging information, experiences and solutions. Efus was created on this occasion and celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Efus’ main mission has not changed: promoting the exchange of knowledge and practices on urban security throughout Europe, with a pragmatic approach. Today, we want to see the co-production of urban security policies as a priority for European cities, states and institutions. Citizen participation is a transverse principle for action in order to include civil society in all the stages of security policies (design, implementation and evaluation). It's a good investment that is not always easy to promote. Our challenge is to create the conditions that will make the coproduction of security possible and sustainable.

- SDC 2017 - Summary of sessions - Wednesday 15 November - 1 Jordi Jardí Pinyol mentioned that our obligation in the face of micro and macro threats is to create public values in order to improve the quality of life. This can be done in a cold and technical way, or with warmth and empathy, which is the approach chosen by the Government of Catalonia. He also reminded the audience that the terrorist attack in Barcelona last August showed that the city has “one of the best security systems in the world.” “Without security there is no freedom, and without freedom there is no democracy.”

Ada Colau recalls that Efus was created 30 years ago in Barcelona, whose Mayor at the time was Pasqual Maragall. She also mentioned the terrorist attack which occured last August in Barcelona, and stressed the “fantastic response of the emergency services” and the excellent coordination, both technical and human, between all the emergency services. Citizens also showed how strong a cohesive city can be. “Barcelona will not change and will remain open to the world and democratic.” In any case, there are local responses to global questions and cities are the proper level of governance to deliver these responses. The response cannot come only from the police as social cohesion policies are necessary.

Plenary session - Thirty years of local urban security policies Moderated by Josep Lahosa, Executive Director of the Spanish Forum for Prevention and Urban Security • Rossella Selmini, Associate Professor, University of Minnesota • Susanne Wolter, Deputy Director of the Lower Saxony Crime Prevention Council Bernard Rivaillé, Deputy Mayor of Lormont and Vice President of the French Forum for Urban Security • Vasco Franco, researcher at the University of Nova Lisboa and Vice President of the Portugal Observatory of Security, Organised Crime and Terrorism • Claudia Laub, President of the association El Ágora (Argentina)

Josep Lahosa recalls the “paradigm shift” that took place over the past 30 years and the emergence of crime prevention policies throughout Europe in the 1980s. National governments understood they could not solve alone security problems and local authorities claimed they had a role to play in this field. In the 1990s, appeared the concept of subsidiarity, which means governing closer to citizens. Cities are social constructions and this is why they cannot be built on social exclusion. They have many aspects that require multiple responses, which can only come from the local level. He stressed is a trend towards more centralisation following measure taken to fight against terrorism.

Adam Crawford Across Europe, there's been a long journey on urban security and crime prevention. The crime prevention job was performed on the sideline while the main action was performed elsewhere. Things started to change in the 1980s, there was a shift was towards proactive prevention rather than reactive detection, and the emphasis was put on social control.

- SDC 2017 - Summary of sessions - Wednesday 15 November - 2 Because crime has multiple causes, the idea emerged that upstream responses and interventions were needed, which themselves require the expertise and resources of many different organisations. The challenge is now is to really build and operate these local security partnerships. There are different models in Europe.

The challenges ahead There are two main challenges: austerity policies and the delivery of co-production, on the ground. Among other important challenges: the ageing of the population, increasing inequality, mobility, new technologies, and the Age of Anthropocene (i.e. the impact of humanity on the planet), which will have huge repercussions for the whole planet.

Rossella Selmini Italy is going through an economic and humanitarian crisis (receiving important flows of migrants), which have put security policies under stress. In Italy, these policies were developed at the local level because the national level was more preoccupied with the fight against the Mafia. The trend is towards social prevention. But nowadays, there is a movement towards more centralisation.

Susanne Wolter She recalls the problems that Germany experienced in the 1990s in the wake of the reunification of the country (young people from East Germany who became offenders...). It is necessary to work more closely with civil society, and to never consider that crime prevention is a given.

André Lemaitre In Belgium, there was a revolution in the way public security was approached, in the 1990s, with more power and responsibilities given to the local level. The situation is complicated in Belgium because apart from the local and federal levels, there are also the regions and the communities. But the European partnership model has been thoroughly adopted in Belgium. Today, there is a movement towards more centralisation. We are also confronted to the challenge of terrorism.

Bernard Rivaillé He was present when Efus was created in 1987 on the triptych prevention, repression and solidarity. Who better than the local level can respond to local questions? Also, cities help cities: direct exchange between European cities, as promoted by Efus, are important. “We need each other”. There shouldn't be an opposition between crime prevention, security and social development: in his experience, these three pillars are all equally important.

Vasco Franco Lisbon has worked a lot on ideas brought by Efus, such as the creation of a local police or of municipal security councils. In 2001, the Ministry of Justice set up a very successful programme of security co-production with local residents, NGOs, etc.

- SDC 2017 - Summary of sessions - Wednesday 15 November - 3 Claudia Laub Efus had a great influence on us, at a time when we were just coming out of the dictatorship. At the time, national security was considered as exclusively a matter for the national state. But we wanted a security of the people, not of the national state. At the time, in Argentina, the word “security” was associated with the dictatorship. Meeting Gilbert Bonnemaison and Michel Marcus was the start of an intense coooperation. We learned that prevention is a political process: it was necessary to politicise technicians and to “technicise” politicians. There was several projects for a Latin American Forum, which did not come through yet. It was an exchange: we learned from Europe, and Europe learned from Latin America. But crime prevention is still a “Cinderella”: there is always money for jails and the police, but not for prevention.

********** Second part: From cooperation to coproduction of security policies

Moderated by: Antonio Baquero, journalist, El Periódico • Juan José Medina-Ariza, Senior Lecturer Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice University of Manchester, President of the Spanish Society of Criminology • Joachim Fritz, Head of GIZ's Sector Department Governance and Conflict • Joan Miquel Capell, Chief of Staff, Security and Prevention, Deputation of Barcelona • Felisa Pérez, Technical Director of the association Benestar i Desenvolupament and representative of the Citizen Agreement for an Inclusive Barcelona • Karin Svanberg, Division Chief, National Swedish Prevention Council • Claude Paulin Danho, Mayor of Attécoubé, Abidjan, President of the Ivorian Forum

Juan José Medina-Ariza The challenge of co-production is to encourage citizens and the third sector to take part in security.

Joachim Fritz The GIZ, the international German cooperation agency, works with some 30 countries throughout the world. J. Fritz mentions the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, several of which include security in a wide range of fields, such as education and health. This shows that security is interconnected with development. It is important to work across various levels of governance and to work with citizens.

Joan Miquel Capell The challenge today is to rebuild institutional trust. There must be trust between the differnt level of governance and also the sharing of similar ideas. For example, in order to deliver local programmes, the various stakeholders must trust each other. We need data that can be measured, inorder to justify fundings allocated to crime prevention. The crucial question for co-production hence is: How do we measure prevention?

- SDC 2017 - Summary of sessions - Wednesday 15 November - 4 Felisa Pérez In Catalonia, the third sector is very important. It accounts for 1.4% of the GDP. In Spain, the economic crisis shook the welfare state, and poverty is increasing. But the economic crisis is the consequence of a crisis of values: social spending should not be considered as a cost but as an investment. The Agreement for an Inclusive Barcelona, created in 2006, gathers 600 organisations and promotes public-private partnerships.

Karin Svanberg In Sweden, there is no law which specify cities’ obligations, and the model is evidence-based. National agencies support local associations who carry out prevention activities, in particular by sharing their knowledge with the local level.

Claude Paulin Danho In Côte d'Ivoire as in other African countries (in particular French-speaking Africa), security was in the past considered as a police matter. But things have changed and it now is rather considered as a matter of citizen participation. The local culture and customs, in a region where there is a strong sense of community, is a good starting point. But now we need to reinvent and modelise the concept of co-production. Insecurity stems from poverty and inequality. In particular, the whole issue of migration is linked to poverty (in countries of origin) and inequality. Given that a huge part of the population in Africa is young, African cities are faced with the challenge of providing jobs for the young and decent wages. Mr Danho wishes to reinforce collaboration between the Ivorian Forum, Africa and Efus.

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We are looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow for the workshops and field visits.

Do not forget that you can share all your ideas and documents on Efus Network.

- SDC 2017 - Summary of sessions - Wednesday 15 November - 5