Cutting Crime Impact through evidence-based design thinking

Crime has a significant negative impact on citizens’ quality of life, community cohesion and the safety and security of the urban environment — key requirements of a functioning democracy. The aim of the EU-funded Cutting Crime Impact (CCI) project is to enable Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) and security policymakers to adopt a preventative, evidence-based and sustainable approach to tackling high-impact crime and protecting citizens' way of life. Tailored to the needs of end-users, CCI will research, design, develop and demonstrate four Toolkits covering: (i) predictive policing; (ii) community policing; (iii) crime prevention through urban design and planning; and (iv) measuring and mitigating citizens’ feelings of insecurity. Using social science methods and innovation tools from the design industry, CCI aims to support LEAs in researching and innovating practical, evidence-based tools that meet end-users needs and operational contexts. ‘Requirements capture’ involves gaining a rich understanding of user needs, contexts, priorities and potential problems, and is key to the success of new products and services. This presentation will explain the thinking behind CCI, and show how the project will provide LEAs with valuable experience in requirements capture, problem framing, ideation, concept generation, solution design and prototyping that is transferable to other areas.