With a push of a button, Alderman Saskia Bruines launched the Crowd Safety Manager project on the boulevard of Scheveningen. Within this innovation project, the Dutch Police and the Municipality of The Hague are investigating this summer how digital technology and data can be used to provide insight into crowds, so that groups of people in different areas can be easily channelled. A solution that offers more possibilities to prevent unwanted events and to better deploy police and enforcement officers. This should improve safety on the streets. "Scheveningen is very busy in the summer. That's why this is the perfect place to test whether we can reduce nuisance with the help of smart technology", says Saskia Bruines.
Digital 3D map
The Crowd Safety Manager is a digital map, the so-called Digital Twin, on which the crowds are visible. The system also analyses and predicts where crowds may arise. The aim is for the municipality, emergency services and police to be able to anticipate events better. The dashboard does this by combining a number of anonymous data sources. The system counts the number of people on the boulevard and looks at information from public transport, parking data, weather forecasts and traffic counts.
Because all parties are looking at the same picture of heavy traffic, it is easy to make agreements on how to handle heavy traffic. This helps the police and the municipality to anticipate nuisances more quickly. "With this dashboard, we can better anticipate traffic and therefore, together with the municipality, entrepreneurs and residents, ensure that safety, quality of life and tourism go hand in hand. It really is a tool for jointly examining how we can best keep the city safe," says Martine Dijkstra, innovation portfolio holder for The Hague Police.
Cooperation
Many other Dutch cities are also experiencing increasing crowds in popular areas. That is why the municipality of The Hague is sharing the findings of the Crowd Safety Manager trial. This is done in two national collaborations for sharing and scaling up successful innovations in the field of urban innovation and safety: the CityDeal "A smart city is how you do it" and the Impact Coalition Safety & Security.
The Crowd Safety Manager is an initiative of the National Police and the Municipality of The Hague. In collaboration with the partners TU Delft, Q-TC Nederland B.V., TNO, WE LABS, Future City Foundation and Argaleo. More information about the project can be found on the website crowdsafetymanager.nl
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