Under the Safer Cities Program, UNODC and UNHABITAT have issued a handbook to help prevent crime in cities and towns. The handbook, entitled Introductory Handbook on Policing Urban Space provides policy makers and practitioners, including government officials, police, municipal planners and members of civic groups, with strategies and good governance practices to help understand crime and crime prevention patterns in order to better control crime trends in rapidly growing cities in low- and middle-income countries.
Among the promising practices highlighted in the handbook are: state officials must establish links between police and other state institutions in order to effectively incorporate security concerns into wider government efforts; city planners should contribute to discussions about security and develop relations with police; and collaboration between urban planners, civil society, government officials, police and communities is essential in combating crime.
The handbook examines a variety of crime control strategies, including community-oriented policing, problem-oriented policing, intelligence-led policing, situational crime prevention and crime prevention through environmental design. It also addresses broader principles of managing urban spaces to control crime and strategies for evaluating crime control programmes.
The handbook includes references to efforts to control crime in the following countries: Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Mexico, South Africa, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America. |
