Tag: urban safety

Visit from a Cameroonian delegation to the ICPC: towards closer collaboration on Urban Safety

On Tuesday the 26th of Junethe ICPC had the pleasure of being visited by the President of the RC3D ( Réseau pour la Coopération Décentralisée et le Développement Durable), Ms Angèle Bagnia, and Mr Jean Bruno Tagne, Director General.   

An active partner of the ICPC for many years, the RC3D promotes international and inter-professional exchanges of experience and knowledge sharing, in order to create a platform for exchange that is unique in Africa and Canada.  

We were also honoured to welcome a delegation of mayors from the Cameroonian capital Douala: Mr Jean-Jacques Lengue Malapa, mayor of the Douala 1st Arrondissement, Mr Valentin Epoupa Bossambo, mayor of the Douala 3rd Arrondissement, and Mr Richard Mfeungwang, mayor of the Douala 5th Arrondissement.  

The meeting led to discuss the ICPC’s participation in a session on urban safety during the 8th edition of the RC3D’s Forum for Decentralised Cooperation and Development (FOCODDEV), which will take place in Montreal from 27 November to 1 December 2023. In addition, this discussion focused on the aim of establishing ICPC’s Urban Safety Lab model adapted in Cameroon.  

2023 Summer School: a first edition to build tomorrow’s safe cities

From 24 to 25 August, 2023, the ICPC had the pleasure of hosting the first edition of its Summer School at the Centre St-Pierre in Montreal, which focused on the theme of “Urban safety in action: building tomorrow’s safe cities“.

The central theme of this first edition was to highlight prevention in urban travel and support competent management when it comes to the safety of urban areas.   

More than twenty people attended the presentations, which covered topics such as urban safety as an approach based on living spaces, as an approach based on decision-making spaces, and crime prevention strategies for urban mobility. Also, the participants discussed the recommendations suggested by the ICPC and its collaborators, as well as took part in a collective formulation of possible solutions to the difficulties they regularly encounter in their day-to-day work in and around Montreal.  

It was an honour to welcome Paola Porcelli, coordinator at the YMCA and specialist in mental health and intercultural approaches, as well as Sophie Paquin, director of undergraduate programmes in urban planning at the ESG at UQAM and member of the International Chair on the Uses and Practices of the Intelligent City, as speakers and guests for these two days. 

We would like to thank all the participants, as well as the guest speakers, with whom we had fruitful discussions and who contributed to the success of the event.  

We look forward to seeing you again next year! 

Proceedings of the 7th International Conference of the ICPC on the security of mobility: a review of the paths of action, innovation and prevention

From October 4 to 6, 2022, the International Centre for the Prevention of Crime organized the 7th International Conference on Observation, Analysis and Prevention of Insecurity, in collaboration with the French Ministry of Transport, the International Union of Railways, the International Association of Public Transport, the Union of Public Transports, Safe.brussels, the Institute of Higher Studies of the Ministry of the Interior, the government of Quebec and the government of Canada. The event took place at the headquarters of the International Union of Railways in Paris.

The main theme of the conference was Security in Mobility. Through a collaboration with French, Belgian, and Canadian partners, the event succeeded in presenting various approaches and raising awareness on multiple issues surrounding safety and insecurity in mobility. This conference revealed the importance of the risks and challenges faced by public transport, which is part of our daily lives.

The conference included several workshops addressing a wide range of topics related to safety and insecurity in mobility. These topics included the feeling of insecurity, public transit harassment, crisis management in the face of the terrorist threat, verbal abuse and aggression against staff, fare evasion, crisis management, and technological prevention tools, social prevention of violence and incivilities, crisis management: sharing experiences on current crisis situations, and situational prevention and the CPTED approach in mobility. 

These proceedings are a complete synthesis of all the information shared during the activities, as well as the exchanges between the different speakers and the participants. They are now available for consultation.

The main points to remember are as follows:

  1. The issue of harassment on public transport is a major problem, particularly detrimental to women.
  2. Crime does not occur randomly; it is influenced by circumstances and factors that facilitate criminal opportunities and acts of delinquency.
  3. There is a paradoxical cohabitation between individuals in great precariousness and users who pay for a service and naturally expect a certain level of quality.

You can access the proceedings by clicking on the corresponding links:

English version

French version

Spanish version

Participation of the ICPC in a session of exchange of experiences and innovation of the Inter-American Community of Crime Observatories

The first session of the 2023 Inter-American Community of Crime Observatories, Department of Public Security of the Organization of American States, was held on April 26. The ICPC was represented at the event by Oscar Figueroa, the organization’s Latin American consultant.

The session focused on the transfer of prevention and security models between two municipalities in the region, and the important role played by Observatories in the design, implementation, and monitoring of projects. Representatives from the municipality of Peñalolén (Chile) and the municipality of Nezahualcóyotl (Mexico) shared their respective models of rights promotion and social prevention, as well as their model of social proximity, and also shared the lessons learned from the exchange and transfers carried out. Security experts emphasized the importance of collaboration and communication between crime observatories to achieve effective security solutions.

For the fourth year in a row, the ICPC is taking part in the Municipal Support Program

As part of its ongoing commitment to public safety, the International Centre for the Prevention of Crime (ICPC) is proud to announce its participation in the Municipal Crime Prevention Support Program project for a fourth consecutive year. This initiative, supported by the provincial government, aims to strengthen community safety and prevent crime through a variety of preventive measures. This year, ICPC has been specifically mandated to support the municipalities of Blainville, L’Ancienne-Lorette, the Portneuf MRC, Notre-Dame-de-Ham, Sainte-Brigitte-de-Laval, Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac and Brandon in their crime prevention efforts.

The purpose of this program is to provide funding to municipal organizations, including aboriginal organizations, with populations of less than 100,000, to enable them to design and implement preventive actions tailored to the crime and safety issues that concern them.

As part of the MSP’s crime prevention mandate, the ICPC has been mandated to support these municipalities in implementing a structured approach to prevention planning.

ICPC meeting with the Association of Police Directors of Quebec

On February 21st, 2023, the ICPC met with the Association of Police Directors of Quebec (ADPQ) to present its ongoing projects and services. The meeting provided an opportunity to explore possibilities for collaboration in order to expand the range of services offered and support municipalities in Quebec, as well as to work with a greater number of police services in the province’s urban centers. The meeting strengthened the relationship between the ICPC and the ADPQ, and opened up new avenues for collaboration to better meet the security needs of the population.

ICPC has published a review of the literature and practices for the prevention of armed violence

Gun violence is on the rise in the Montreal metropolitan area, but also throughout Quebec (Larin 2022), and cold weapon violence is still common. However, several tragic events involving firearms have compelled the Quebec government to invest in the fight against this type of violence.

This review of literature and practice is part of these efforts to better understand the phenomenon of armed violence. It also seeks to share knowledge and experiences from measures put in place around the world to curb violence. However, armed violence is a complex phenomenon that involves more than one issue. Therefore, it is important to adopt the appropriate prevention strategies depending on the context in which armed violence is addressed in order to intervene in a comprehensive and targeted manner.

This report presents four issues that may result in weapon-related acts: 

  • Suicide and self-inflicted violence;
  • Armed violence among delinquent or criminalized youth groups;
  • Intimate partner violence;
  • Incidents related to violent extremism.

This report provides insight and understanding of crime data collected under the Quebec Department of Public Safety's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR 2.2) rules from 2015 to 2020.  

Read the report here (in French)

ICPC participated in an episode of ”Cap sur 2030”

With the significant increase in armed violence in Montreal, which has been a major issue for several years, a question has been raised: How can we strengthen the social fabric in Montreal? Panelists invited to a special segment on the program Cap sur 2030, in which the ICPC was invited to participate, attempted to answer this question.

Michelle Côté, Director of Research at ICPC, discussed the topic with Ted Rutland, Associate Professor of Geography with a focus on municipal policy, urban planning, and urban safety in Canada, affiliated with Concordia University and a member of the Anti-Carceral Group; Louis Audet-Gosselin, Scientific and Strategic Director of the Centre for the Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence; and Malika Saher, lawyer and Senior Mediator at the Dr. Julien Foundation. Together, they suggested solutions to preserve and strengthen social ties in Montreal in the coming years.

Cap sur 2030 is a program on MATV that brings together a number of experts and professionals in the field to discuss inspiring and innovative ideas for building the future of Montreal for the benefit of the community and its citizens.

To watch the episode (in French): https://matv.ca/montreal/mes-emissions/cap-sur-2030/comment-solidifier-le-tissu-social-a-montreal

Participation of ICPC at the City of Montreal’s event “À présent, le grand rendez-vous montréalais sur la solidarité, l’équité et l’inclusion”

On October 18, 2022, ICPC had the pleasure of attending the event À présent, le grand rendez-vous montréalais sur la solidarité, l’équité et l’inclusion, organized by the City of Montreal, as part of the deployment of its Solidarity, Equity and Inclusion Action Plan 2021-2025. It was an opportunity for the city to present its five major action areas for the future, the successes of the participating organizations, and to look at the objectives to be reached in the coming years.   

Thank you to the City of Montreal for the invitation.   

The ICPC in France for its 7th international conference

On October 5 and 6, 2022, the 7th International Conference on Observation, Analysis and Prevention of Insecurity, organized by the International Centre for the Prevention of Crime, in collaboration with the French Ministry of Transport, the International Union of Railways, the International Association of Public Transport, the Union of Public Transports, Safe.brussels, the Institute of Higher Studies of the Ministry of the Interior, the government of Quebec and the government of Canada, took place in Paris. The conference was held at the headquarters of the International Union of Railways.  

For this 7th edition, the theme of the conference was: Security in Mobility.

To mark the beginning of this 7th edition of the international conference, an opening cocktail was held at the residence of the Canadian Ambassador in Paris. Our partner, the Canadian Embassy in France, and Amy Baker, Deputy Head of Mission, welcomed partners and speakers, for the first meeting between all the participants of this conference. 

The event included plenary sessions, workshops, and field visits. The conference gathered many participants from all over the world (nearly ten nationalities were represented among more than fifty speakers) concerned by the observation, the analysis, and the good practices related to the improvement of security in mobility, such as political agents, researchers, representatives of transport operators, NGOs, and institutional representatives.

Nearly 180 participants attended the conference, coming from 138 different companies and representing more than 20 countries from 4 continents.  

The ICPC would like to thank the Government of Quebec and the Government of Canada for their financial support in the development of this conference. We were pleased to have Omar Alghabra’ support, Minister of Transport of Canada, via a video contribution and to host Michelle Boisvert, Delegate General of Quebec in Paris, in person, taking part in the opening remarks.

The opening plenary of the conference was introduced by the ICPC. Michelle Côté, Director of Research, and Florilène Cornier, Analyst and Project Officer, presented the conceptual framework of the conference around the current issues of safety in mobilities that are spread across the world. It was the opportunity to share the organization’s different expertise on the topic as well as the importance of a differential analysis of these safety issues from one country to another.  

During these two days of conferences, workshops were dedicated to specific phenomena, such as the fight against fraud, harassment in transport, prevention against the terrorist threat and crisis management, analysis of crime in transport and aggression to staff. These topics, among many others, were addressed by various representatives of transport operators discussing key security issues and how to prevent them.   

Discussions about effective tools to measure, analyze and study the phenomenon, examples of strong pathways and platforms for knowledge transfer, presentations of crime and safety approaches specific to mobility, effective evaluation as well as dissemination of best practices, were also part of these exchanges. 

Participants were also able to select and participate in one of the five different visits and demonstrations to further their practical knowledge:  

  • Two dog team demonstrations, cyno-detection, and cyno-attack by the Société nationale des chemins de fer français est l’entreprise ferroviaire publique française (SNCF).  
  • A demonstration of intervention techniques by the SNCF.  
  • A training offered by the Régie autonome des transports parisiens (RATP) on awareness for victims of harassment. Presentation of the Stand UP project and the 5D method in order to learn how to react safely in a harassment situation in a public place, as a victim or a witness.   
  • A visit organized by the RATP of the security devices and the security headquarters at the Gare de Lyon metro station. This visit allowed experts to discover the operating methods of security interventions.   
  • Presentation of a social collection bus by the RATP. This presentation was an opportunity to discover an original prevention system for reaching out to homeless people and fighting social exclusion and ensuring the safety of its transport systems.    

Being at its seventh event, this international conference has truly become a meeting point for crime observation and crime analysis. 

It should be noted that the proceedings of the conference will soon be available online.  

For any questions or requests, please write to info@cipc-icpc.org.