Fighting against petty crimes: new methods to prevent, investigate and mitigate high impact petty crimes

There are a number of significant common threats which have a cross-border impact on security and safety within the EU, and security has become a key factor in ensuring a high quality of life in the European society and in protecting our critical infrastructures through preventing and tackling common threats. The European Union must prevent, and if necessary investigate and mitigate the impact of criminal acts, whilst protecting fundamental rights of its citizens. The consistent efforts made by the EU Member States and the Union to that effect are not enough, especially when criminal groups and their activities expand far beyond national borders. The definition of a European Security Model which builds upon the analysis of the human factors, at the roots of the design of security strategies and methodologies, is needed. Such a Model would encompass: the development of a common understanding of security issues among EU security practitioners, as well as of the causes and effects of insecurity among EU citizens; common EU methodologies to be implemented by security practitioners (about enhancing prevention and anticipation and/or the timely involvement of all the actors that have a role in protection from the political, economic and social scene). The globalization of communications and finance infrastructure allows for cybercrime to develop, and corruption and financial crime to take new forms. Cyber criminality is a phenomenon by which criminal acts with new tools and within a new environment, which is not satisfactorily understood, nor properly addressed. The same applies to the innovative technologies and methodologies for financial crime. Law Enforcement Agencies need new equipment to counter such developments. The EU law enforcement agencies will benefit from improving and consolidating knowledge about security problems and their remedies. The idea to create a common platform at EU level in order to fight against petty crimes and mitigate their effects is potential added value service for citizens. An European Security Model (ESM) that involves the citizen as part of the solution to the problem of petty crime through safe bidirectional communication channels, guidance for educational and training programs and through assessing the attitudes and perceptions of citizens towards their security, policing relationships and their role in crime prevention. The human-factors centred European Security Model will enable: 1. Better understanding of the problem based on the model (causes and affects) 2. Easier identification of the solutions 3. Basis for evaluation of solutions 4. Consistent understanding of the issues across borders (standards, terminology, concepts) 5. Citizen-centred approach, allowing the citizen to be a greater part of the solution in a safe and responsible manner. At the basis of this will be a gravity factor and impact matrix that looks at the different categories and definitions of crime, their impact based on a range of different criteria (geography, financial cost, social cost, average age of offender, etc.), the available mitigation and prevention tools and the resource implications of taking different responses. An ad hoc designed software platform that will assist in the management and operational implementation of the gravity factor matrix through support for data gathering (sensors and human reports), data processing, analysis, data fusion, data visualisation, decision support and communication. The design of similar platform it is not easy, in the EU there are no similar legislation and principles, something is forbidden in one country and allowed in others, some behaviour are censored in one country and accepted in others. There is a need to implement a Dynamic Risk Assessment methodology. There are different factors influencing the “gravity” of a crime due to: geographic location, local regulations, local crime tolerance and perception, time context, behaviour of media, specific situation, socio-political environment, etc. It is quite a challenge to take into account all of them without biases and approximations. Geographic location: laws and regulations change from country to country as well as petty crime typology, some drugs are allowed in some EU countries not in other, some countries are much more concerned about petty crime due to soccer match, or violence on women other less. More or less the same applies to Crime Tolerance and Crime Perception. Time Context: the gravity and perception of some crimes change significantly through the time even due to changes in ethics and moral principles, sometimes “old” crimes that disappeared time ago are back due to social changes the reverse is valid as well. Influence due to Media: in the age of Internet and Breaking News the role of media in disseminating information (good and bad – informing citizens or organising crimes and even promoting them or providing fake news) is more than relevant, it may deeply affect the perception of crimes and the feelings of citizens. Temporary flooding of news about a specific set of crimes (even if not so relevant and not more frequent) may generate a feeling of danger and scare in citizens sometimes igniting dangerous behaviours (amplified reactions). Specific circumstances and the socio-political environment influence as well the gravity and perception of some crimes: the victim is a girl or a disabled person, the crime pertains to a peripheral area of the city, a well known dangerous quarter and so on. All these aspects suggest to take into account a dynamic approach and structure on different layers our “matrix” The Gravity Factor Impact Matrix – in the light of Knowledge ecology - this may lead to take into consideration a layered Impact Matrix, devoting one layer for each country having as “sub-layers” the local aspects described in above and at least one layer due to all the specific “impact factors” due to the context e.g. behaviour of media and news (new make some family of crimes more impacting on people). This matrix is the basis to collect and share information and solutions among EU law enforcement agencies.