Impact Coalitie Smart Safety & Security Explores Public Safety at Events Ahead of Smart City Expo

Municipality The Hague and Dutch National Police, as part of the Impact Coalitie Smart Safety & Security, hosted a workshop on public safety at events ahead of the Smart City Expo World Congress. The session, titled “Public Safety at Events: Recognising Changing Behavior and Sentiment Before It Escalates,” focused on practical strategies to detect and respond to early warning signs of unrest.

Key cases discussed included:

1 May 2025, Scheveningen: Riots erupted unexpectedly, with groups of youths confronting the police. Suzanne Kalf, Innovation Manager, Digital Innovation and Smart City at the municipality of The Hague, provided context, and participants explored key questions from this case:

• How can changes in sentiment be detected early?
• How can these signals be influenced or guided?
• What can be done to prevent escalation?
• How can collaboration between stakeholders be strengthened?

Sail Amsterdam 2025: Approaches to identifying irregularities during large-scale events, presented by Bob Beelen and Kevin Otjes.

Smart City Designs: Innovative strategies for safer event environments by Massimo Fattori.

Crowd Forecasting: Predicting visitor flows and risks, illustrated by Jeroen Steenbakkers with examples from the EMERALDS project.

The workshop concluded that data and technology solutions are most effective when combined with human insights, such as reporting gut feelings that indicate potential issues.

With over 30 participants from municipalities, police, and international partners, the session provided actionable insights and strengthened collaboration for safer public events in the future.

Impact Coalitie Safety & Security is a collaboration between municipalities, the police, knowledge institutions, businesses, VNG, and Security Delta. It acts as a catalyst and agenda-setting platform for cities, accelerating the adoption of smart city innovations that enhance urban safety and security. More info: https://veiligesmartcities.nl/