Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

Intelligence analysts frequently find themselves in situations of high uncertainty and ambiguity. The characteristics of those situations force the analyst to rely on creative generation of plausible explanations – ‘storytelling’. We argue that current interaction design approaches obstruct the storytelling process and impede analysts to perform well in their analytical reasoning process. Our Fluidity and Rigour Model combines storytelling with the interaction methods that are needed to support the variety of reasoning and thinking involved in the analytical process. We further contribute with an outline of how the model has informed our designs in the VALCRI project.

Community Policing (CP) as a specific way of policing is as much a strategic as a tactical and operational question. Strategic design of CP should start from critical analysis of the current circumstances. This comprises of critical revision of the available resources and capabilities, processes and tasks: a reflection of the professional mandates and jurisdictions, and a possibility to re-distribute tasks between other professions or occupations. Often security issues are more than police matters and the analysis of underlying mechanisms may reveal a need for collaborative intervention.

The general idea of CP has to be adapted to local contexts. This adaptation also requires a strategic analysis of the current conditions, the needs of the local communities, and the resources available for the common journey to the desired future. To assist this analysis we introduce a Service Design Canvas for Community Policing (SDCCP). With the SDCCP strategy tool the police can set goals for CP, address the needs of communities and citizens, and identify the key partners and channels of communication. This chapter is based on the pilot testing in Helsinki, Finland done within the Unity project funded by the European Commission within the H2020 Framework Programme.

Understood as internet-based collaborative activity, crowdsourcing can be utilised by law enforcement agencies (LEAs) in fighting online crimes such as human trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation. In such an instance LEAs can draw on the information held by the general public, to help solve puzzles of criminal investigation in instances where traditional police methods and intelligence have failed. This has recently been illustrated by EUROPOL in investigating crimes of child sexual exploitation, whereby EUROPOL launched a website relying on crowd knowledge sourcing. It is envisaged in this paper that the potential of EURPOL’s endeavour can be used beyond child exploitation, e.g., to address all forms of exploitation. Online exploitation in the form of posting images/videos of victims – whether to advertise their services (sexual or other) or as part of online pornography – allows exploiters, including human traffickers, to span across borders and reach unprecedented levels of audiences, whilst allowing for anonymity. In such contexts, where the police have minimal evidence to analyse, and evidence is often context/location specific and thus requires local knowledge, community engagement can become increasingly valuable; citizens can provide information, identify evidence and report suspicious activities. Yet our enthusiasm may be curbed by the numerous challenges that exist in relying on community engagement in the form of crowdsourcing when fighting crimes of exploitation. This paper answers the question of what are these challenges. The authors highlight the practical difficulties (e.g., getting enough participants), as well as the lack of awareness that continues to exist within the community about the crime of exploitation and the available opportunities for community involvement. Consequently, the paper concludes with providing recommendations to address these limitations.

In developing a semi-automated decision support system using cutting-edge visual technologies to aid police intelligence analysts (the VALCRI project) it was recognised that addressing ethical, privacy and legal issues would need to be considered from the start. From the beginning, experts in these fields were embedded in the project and externally an independent ethics board was established and a number of ethical concerns were identified. Addressing the concerns presented some challenges both in terms of process and product and are the subject of this paper. Insights about these problems can contribute to other research projects beyond the area of crime visualization, for instance addressing concerns such as logging processes for auditing and evidence in other sensitive projects.

This chapter locates the ethos of community-oriented policing at the heart of the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) model in England and Wales and shows that the PCCs’ Police and Crime Plans should function as a key prism through which their performance should be measured. It focuses, in particular, on the Police and Crime Plans for Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and London, examining whether and to what extent they deliver a measure of community-oriented policing in practice.

At the present time, social media are increasingly used within community policing as a tool of fostering communication, and improving trust between the police and communities. Community policing programmes implemented in post-communist countries in South Eastern Europe, as well as processes of building police legitimacy in general, have been facing challenges related to insufficient public confidence in the law enforcement, and a necessity to re-define police roles. This paper uses the results of empirical research to argue that the still ongoing processes of bridging gaps in police-community communication can be supported by the use of social media. Presented argumentation is based on the analysis of selected quantitative studies on police legitimacy, and chosen findings of qualitative field research which was conducted in 2016 in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a part of the project (ICT4COP). An implication of presented study should be a more in-depth analysis of key factors influencing both the formation of police legitimacy, and ways in which the use of social media in police–community relations, especially, in post-communist societies, should be designed to serve the purpose of building trust in the police.

Smartphones have become an inseparable part of our lives and, whether it is for information, entertainment or safety, the installation and use of specific applications on them is necessary, which regardless of their purpose, usually require access to several personal and non-personal information. The same holds for wearable devices, such as smartwatches. In this paper, we study the hazards that can arise by using mobile applications for crime reporting by following the approach that was used in TRILLION project in order to handle data privacy, complying with the national and European legal framework, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Innovation in the field of Community Policing (CP) may improve the performance of the interventions, crime prevention plans, the effectiveness of communication, the social engagement or even the public image of police forces, among many other aspects. Nevertheless, it may also bring undesired and/or unexpected consequences and risks in the context of security management, which affect both police officers and citizens. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can contribute to achieve an inclusive and ‘democratic’ style of community policing that facilitates police officers to better respond to communities’ needs and expectations in a fair manner. On the other hand, the intensiveness of the data processing, their networked nature and the uncontrolled flows of information expose not only the most directly involved participants but also any identifiable person affected. Facing such challenges requires a thorough analysis and assessment of the planned innovations, with a multi-step approach that intervenes before, during and after the implementation. The prior evaluation of the project helps to avoid the most remarkable incompatibilities; the oversight of the work in progress addresses the effects of elements and details that only appear once the project is being developed; finally, a periodic replicable assessment of the new systems provides a picture of the actual results on the long term.

Between August 2013 and May 2015, Dorset Police commissioned a review (Project Genesis) of their Neighbourhood Policing model which had been designed and based on the recommendations of the National Reassurance Policing Programme (NRPP) in 2006. This strategic review identified several weaknesses within the existing Force operational model, such as a lack of a coherent strategic concept understood by officers and staff, a confusion about role profiles, significantly reduced levels of community engagement, high-levels of front line abstractions due to smaller police budgets and a lack of formal, specialised training for existing and new Neighbourhood Policing officers. This paper will briefly discuss some of the initial findings produced by the qualitative and quantitative data.

Although the use of technology to improve community policing effectiveness has gained attention over the last decade, mainly due to the rise in the use of social media, it is far from new; already in 1996, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) organized a series of five regional conferences that focused on how technology can enhance community policing. Despite a very in-depth dedication to the topic, the conferences failed to consider how to pair the technological innovations with the ideas of buying hearts and minds of the public from the emotional angle. This chapter overviews the foci of the conferences and contrasts the decades old goals with state of police community relations 20 years later.