Supporting safety through social territorial networks

Abstract

Today, crime and fear of crime are related to a loss of social control in large cities. In combination with the bystander effect, help might not be provided in the case of an emergency. This paper suggests the framework of a Community Watch Service. The conceptional architecture enables citizens to join virtual, territorial communities. Citizens can create their own virtual territories. These territories are linked to software services offering functionality like reporting damage to public property, receiving information from public authorities or organizing help in the neighborhood. The framework aims to improve social control in a positive way and increase public safety in large cities. We demonstrate the Community Watch Service as a prototype which is available for standard web browsers and Android-based mobile phones.