Municipality of The Hague and the National Police Launch Security Innovation Hub

How do you use technology to make a city safer? The municipality of The Hague and the National Police are working with other partners on this question in an innovation hub. The projects focus on surveillance and security, the responsible use of sensors and cameras and pressure monitoring. In this way, knowledge and skills are brought together and innovation in these important areas is further developed together. To enhance collaboration, the National Police will also establish an office at the HSD Campus end of 2022.

Saskia Bruines: "The Hague wants to use the opportunities of new technology and data for safety in the city. This collaboration fits well with the ambition of the municipality to deal carefully with privacy and information security. Within the innovation hub we will test with more cities what works and does not work in practice."

Solutions that are being tested include monitoring crowds at Scheveningen in a privacy-conscious manner. Agents can also train multiple scenarios in a digital environment at virtual locations in The Hague. 

"The innovation hub fulfills a national leadership role and focuses on issues that can lead to unsafe situations in the city, such as the nuisance caused by the use of narcotics, aggression, noise pollution and subversion," said Alderman Bruines.

Opportunities of new technology

"With the help of new technology, we as the police can improve our work and thus security. In doing so, we work a lot with other organisations involved in security and knowledge institutions around the world. Because of the many national and international government organisations in The Hague, we tackle topics such as surveillance and security and pressure monitoring here," said Henk Geveke (member of the National Police Board). Police chief Paul van Musscher says that Unit The Hague is proud to be able to give substance to this national ambition. "Especially in The Hague, as an international city of peace and justice, the need to find contemporary answers to current and future issues in the field of security is great. We are happy to share our experiences with colleagues elsewhere in the country." 

Crowd Safety Manager

One of the projects of the innovation hub is the so-called crowd safety manager. This summer there will be a trial with this digital crowd manager at Scheveningen, investigating how digital technology and data can help to manage the crowds at the seaside resort. The digital map shows where it is busy, but also predicts where crowds may arise. So that the municipality, the police, emergency services and event organisers can better anticipate. The 3D dashboard does this by combining a number of anonymous data sources. For example, the system counts the number of people on the boulevard and looks at information from public transport, parking data, weather forecasts and traffic counts.

Impact Coalition Safety & Security

The goal of the innovation hub is that other cities and units in the Netherlands also benefit from the knowledge that is gained. Through the Impact Coalition Safety & Security the experiences are shared. This national cooperation between municipalities, police, knowledge institutions and companies is supported by the Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG) and Security Delta (HSD).

Source: Impact Safety & Security Coalition (in Dutch)