Search Results (29)

This paper aims to introduce a standardized test methodology for drone detection, tracking, and identification systems. It is the aim that this standardized test methodology for assessing the performance of counter-drone systems will lead to a much better understanding of the capabilities of these solutions. This is urgently needed, as there is an increase in drone threats and there are no cohesive policies to evaluate the performance of these systems and hence mitigate and manage the threat. The presented methodology has been developed within the framework of the project COURAGEOUS funded by European Union’s Internal Security Fund Police. This standardized test methodology is based upon a series of standard user-defined scenarios representing a wide set of use cases. At this moment, these standard scenarios are geared toward civil security end users. However, the proposed standard methodology provides an open architecture where the standard scenarios can be modularly extended, providing standard users the possibility to easily add new scenarios. For each of these scenarios, operational needs and functional performance requirements are provided. Using this information, an integral test methodology is presented that allows for a fair qualitative and quantitative comparison between different counter-drone systems. The standard test methodology concentrates on the qualitative and quantitative evaluation of counter-drone systems. This test methodology was validated during three user-scripted validation trials. Full article

This article is based on a months-long investigation and aims to contribute to the scientific understanding of the process of racialisation of the sub-Saharan migrants in Tunisia. The starting point of our research was the speech given by the Tunisian president, Kais Saied, in February 2023. In the light of new negotiations with the EU for technical, administrative, and financial support in the management of migration in the Mediterranean, the president emphasised the importance of Tunisia being and remaining Arab and Muslim. The sub-Saharan migrants who have penetrated the Mediterranean area in large numbers, mostly via Libya or Algeria, are black. Many of them are also Christians. The Tunisian case regarding the racialisation of migrants is similar to the dynamics of political discourses and actions of systemic racialisation in European countries. Our thesis is that racialisation based on religion and/or skin colour is part of a more complex dynamic, defined by the capitalist mode of production, which, due to its inner contradictions, simultaneously requires and expels human labour force. We claim that the permanently expelled constitute surplus populations that are, due to not being disciplined by the capitalist markets, considered dangerous, which is why they fall under police jurisdiction. This process of policing surplus populations is what constitutes contemporary systemic racism as a special mode of state politics, whereby “race” is the result of said process and not determined by its biological, religious, ethnic, or cultural characteristics. We support our thesis by a fieldwork study consisting of qualitative interviews with Tunisian experts, conducted based on purposive sampling and subsequent qualitative coding, as well as of three personal narrative interviews, which were conducted with sub-Saharan migrants from Cameroon, who had been living in a refugee “village” in the north of Tunisia for more than a year. Full article

The inference of biogeographical ancestry (BGA) can assist in police investigations of serious crime cases and help to identify missing people and victims of mass disasters. In this study, we evaluated the typing performance of 56 ancestry-informative SNPs in 177 samples using the ForenSeq™ DNA Signature Prep Kit on the MiSeq FGx system. Furthermore, we compared the prediction accuracy of the tools Universal Analysis Software v1.2 (UAS), the FROG-kb, and GenoGeographer when inferring the ancestry of 503 Europeans, 22 non-Europeans, and 5 individuals with co-ancestry. The kit was highly sensitive with complete aiSNP profiles in samples with as low as 250pg input DNA. However, in line with others, we observed low read depth and occasional drop-out in some SNPs. Therefore, we suggest not using less than the recommended 1ng of input DNA. FROG-kb and GenoGeographer accurately predicted both Europeans (99.6% and 91.8% correct, respectively) and non-Europeans (95.4% and 90.9% correct, respectively). The UAS was highly accurate when predicting Europeans (96.0% correct) but performed poorer when predicting non-Europeans (40.9% correct). None of the tools were able to correctly predict individuals with co-ancestry. Our study demonstrates that the use of multiple prediction tools will increase the prediction accuracy of BGA inference in forensic casework. Full article

Even though hate speech is an extreme form of intolerance, which contributes to hate crime, the assessment of this particular behavior and its expressions is often problematic, because hate speech is difficult to define and even more difficult to investigate and punish. In the present article, the authors analyze the development of human rights standards (in particular as interpreted in the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights) regarding freedom of expression and hate speech and look at their application in Poland and Slovenia through a comparative analysis of Polish and Slovenian law and practice. We noticed that challenges with fulfilling international obligations to adequately respond to and fight hate speech can be observed and that some room for improvement on the level of lawmaking, policymaking, and their effective implementation is present. The most evident challenge remains in the low rates of prosecution of hate crimes recorded by the police, which need to be addressed by both States. In Slovenia, some positive systemic and regulatory changes have recently been introduced, while in Poland there has been little progress and not all victims of hate speech are adequately protected by law. The authors suggest a focus on educating individuals about the harmful consequences of hate speech and acts, adapting legislation to appropriately punish individuals who spread hate speech, raising awareness and understanding of the rhetoric used in the public sphere, and increasing media support for the aforementioned awareness, keeping in mind that solutions on how to appropriately address or prevent hate speech are by no means simple or straightforward. Full article

Border pushbacks, including at the European Union’s external borders and by countries such as Australia, Mexico, Turkey, and the United States, are common—and in fact have become a new normal. These border policing or other operations aim to prevent people from reaching, entering, or remaining in a territory. Screening for protection needs is summary or non-existent. Pushbacks violate the international prohibitions of collective expulsion and refoulement, and pushbacks of children are inconsistent with the best interests principle and other children’s rights standards. Excessive force, other ill-treatment, family separation, and other rights violations may also accompany pushback operations. Despite formidable obstacles such as weak oversight mechanisms, undue judicial deference to the executive, and official ambivalence, domestic court rulings and other initiatives show some promise in securing compliance with international standards and affording a measure of accountability. Full article

This paper presents an attempt at establishing an association between crime levels and prison populations across European countries. We observe that the situation in Central and Eastern European countries differs distinctly from the rest of Europe. Building on this, we offer justification that is methodologically based on correlations and regressions of country incarceration rates on crime rates, with reference to governance indicators. Our cross-sectional analysis uses data on crime and prisoner rates by offence from Eurostat and SPACE for the year 2018. The paper’s empirical analysis is preceded by a discussion of the challenges faced when attempting to compare crime between countries in Europe. A review of research focused on relationships between incarceration and crime follows, with the emphasis on the deterrence effect and the prison paradox. Typically, this stream of research uses microdata covering a single country or limited to a smaller geographic area. International comparisons are rare, and are usually based on time series and trend analyses. The quantitative approach applied here is based on recognizing two clusters of countries: the Central and Eastern European (CEE) cluster and the Western European (WE) cluster. We show that the observation of higher prisoner rates and lower crime rates for CEE countries is confirmed with regression analysis. Our study encompasses four types of offences: assault, rape, robbery, and theft. The final section of the paper presents an attempt to incorporate Worldwide Governance Indicators into the analysis of the association between incarceration and crime rates. The results confirm that crime rates in WE countries are distinctly higher than in CEE countries, while incarceration rates in WE are significantly lower than in CEE countries. We think this is due to a higher percentage of crimes being reported and the greater accuracy of police statistics in WE countries. The prison population in each country is largely determined by its criminal and penal policies, which differ substantially between CEE and WE countries (e.g., in terms of frequency of imposing prison sentences and the length of imprisonment). These tendencies result in higher incarceration rates in CEE countries, despite lower crime rates when compared to WE countries. Full article

Public governance has evolved in terms of safety and security management, incorporating digital innovation and smart-analytics-based tools to visualize abundant data collections. Urban safety and security are vital social problems that have many branches to be solved, simplified, and improved. Currently, we can see that data-driven insights have often been incorporated into planning, forecasting, and fighting such challenges. The literature has extensively indicated several aspects of solving urban safety problems, i.e., social, technological, administrative, urban, and societal. We have a keen interest in the data analysis and smart analytics options that can be deployed to enhance the presentation, promotional analysis, planning, forecasting, and fighting of these problems. For this, we chose to focus on crime statistics and public surveys regarding victimization and perceptions of crime. As we found through a review, many studies have indicated the vitality of crime rates but not public perceptions in decision-making and planning regarding security. There is always a need for the integration of widespread data insights into unified analyses. This study aimed to answer (1) how effectively we can utilize the crime rates and statistics, and incorporate community perceptions and (2) how promising these two ways of seeing the same phenomena are. For the data analysis, we chose four neighboring countries in Central Europe. We selected CECs, i.e., Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, and Slovakia, known collectively as the Visegrád Group or V4. The data resources were administrative police statistics and ESS (European Social Survey) statistical datasets. The choice of this region helped us reduce variability in regional dynamics, regime changes, and social control practices. Full article

The international workshop ‘Forensic Search and Recovery of Clandestine Graves’ took place over two days in 2021 in Wroclaw, Poland. The goal of the workshop was to improve search methods and techniques related to the examination of clandestine burial sites. Geophysical methods were used by an international team of multi-disciplinary specialists to detect simulated burial sites. The training focused on testing methods, including Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR), to verify the effectiveness of the methods in the search for two features representing clandestine burials. The forensic community in Central European countries, including Poland, has been slow to adopt these technologies due to controversial results. While geophysical research is successfully carried out in archaeological research and forensic contexts internationally, its application in the activities of the prosecutor’s office and the police in Poland has been relatively unsuccessful. This has resulted in several controversies related primarily to the erroneous expectations of how the methods are successfully applied. This may be the result of operator inexperience in applying these methods to the search for clandestine burials. This training paired an experienced GPR operator with law enforcement teams and archaeologists, leading to the successful discovery of simulated burials using GPR. Full article

Portugal has the sixth highest road fatality rate among European Union members. This is a problem of different dimensions with serious consequences in people’s lives. This study analyses daily data from police and government authorities on road traffic accidents that occurred between 2016 and 2019 in a district of Portugal. This paper looks for the determinants that contribute to the existence of victims in road traffic accidents, as well as the determinants for fatalities and/or serious injuries in accidents with victims. We use logistic regression models, and the results are compared to the machine-learning model results. For the severity model, where the response variable indicates whether only property damage or casualties resulted in the traffic accident, we used a large sample with a small imbalance. For the serious injuries model, where the response variable indicates whether or not there were victims with serious injuries and/or fatalities in the traffic accident with victims, we used a small sample with very imbalanced data. Empirical analysis supports the conclusion that, with a small sample of imbalanced data, machine-learning models generally do not perform better than statistical models; however, they perform similarly when the sample is large and has a small imbalance. Full article

In the never-ending search by Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) for ways to reduce crime more effectively, the prevention of criminal activity is always considered the ideal solution. Since the 1990s, Intelligence-led Policing (ILP) was implemented in some forms by many LEAs around the world for crime prevention. Along with ILP, LEAs nowadays more and more turn to various new surveillance technologies. As a result, there are numerous studies and reports introducing some compelling results from LEAs that have implemented ILP, offering robust data around how the future of policing could be. In this context, this paper explores the most recent literature, identifying where ILP stands today in Greece and to what extent it could be a viable, practical approach to crime prevention. In addition, it is researched to what degree new technologies have been adopted by the European Union and the Hellenic Police in their “battle” against crime. It is concluded that most technologies are at the research stage, and studies are underway in many areas. Full article

The European regulatory framework requires prior authorization for the use of plants and activities that may impact the environment, to ensure an adequate level of environmental and human health protection. Data on industrial wastewater, urban sewage, atmospheric emissions and waste management of installations subject to licenses generate interest among stakeholders (Environmental Protection Agencies, Police Forces, regions, provinces, municipalities, Local Health Authorities, operators, research bodies, citizens), but unfortunately, they are not properly digitized and processed, as they are often unavailable. Therefore, the main goal of this project is to provide a flexible, interactive and easy-to-use tool for stakeholders to allow them to consult these kinds of environmental data. For this purpose, a database integrated with a web-based Geographical Information System (GIS) platform to collect, manage and share pollutant emissions data, is currently being designed and developed. The web platform offers to users interconnected informative modules on required authorizations, license processes and analytical controls. Moreover, stored data from industries and on emissions are georeferenced and displayed in a web GIS map. Stakeholders have free but limited access to specific sections of the web platform, depending on their tasks. They can consult environmental data and GIS representations, download reports or documents and enter new data. This web application seeks to: (1) promote collaboration among stakeholders, (2) simplify the monitoring of an installation’s authorization status and industrial emissions trends, (3) optimize the environmental licensing procedures, (4) enhance the management of environmental control by the relevant authorities, (5) support health and environmental research, and (6) provide industries with innovative services for data transmission. To evaluate the performance and benefits of the newly-developed tool, a real-life pilot case has been applied using data from industries located in the Province of Ascoli Piceno (Marche region, Italy). Full article

Heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) are involved in 4.5% of police-reported road crashes in Europe and 14.2% of fatal road crashes. Active and passive safety systems can help to prevent crashes or mitigate the consequences but need detailed scenarios based on analysis of region-specific data to be designed effectively; however, a sufficiently detailed overview focusing on long-haul trucks is not available for Europe. The aim of this paper is to give a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of crashes in the European Union that involve HGVs weighing 16 tons or more (16 t+). The identification of the most critical scenarios and their characteristics is based on a three-level analysis, as follows. Crash statistics based on data from the Community Database on Accidents on the Roads in Europe (CARE) provide a general overview of crashes involving HGVs. These results are complemented by a more detailed characterization of crashes involving 16 t+ trucks based on national road crash data from Italy, Spain, and Sweden. This analysis is further refined by a detailed study of crashes involving 16 t+ trucks in the German In-Depth Accident Study (GIDAS), including a crash causation analysis. The results show that most European HGV crashes occur in clear weather, during daylight, on dry roads, outside city limits, and on nonhighway roads. Three main scenarios for 16 t+ trucks are characterized in-depth: rear-end crashes in which the truck is the striking partner, conflicts during right turn maneuvers of the truck with a cyclist riding alongside, and pedestrians crossing the road in front of the truck. Among truck-related crash causes, information admission failures (e.g., distraction) were the main crash causation factor in 72% of cases in the rear-end striking scenario while information access problems (e.g., blind spots) were present for 72% of cases in the cyclist scenario and 75% of cases in the pedestrian scenario. The three levels of data analysis used in this paper give a deeper understanding of European HGV crashes, in terms of the most common crash characteristics on EU level and very detailed descriptions of both kinematic parameters and crash causation factors for the above scenarios. The results thereby provide both a global overview and sufficient depth of analysis of the most relevant cases and aid safety system development. Full article

Territorial cohesion policies are a priority for the European Union. For over thirty years, they have aimed not only to provide greater social and economic development across all European space, but also to contribute to balancing g internal social and economic inequalities. On the other hand, European institutions have adopted regional scale as the optimal to achieve this broad goal. Consequently, the ability of these policies to solve the problems faced by some of these regions has been one of the most widely researched areas in numerous scientific disciplines. This article aims to assess the impact, over a fifteen-year perspective, of cooperation funds focusing on a specific area, the cross-border, and, in particular, the border area separating Spain and France. Specifically, the analyses of data from operative programmes IV and V of the INTERREG-A projects produces contradictory results. While the aim of European institutions was to use the European Territorial Cooperation instrument to achieve a greater, better real impact of funds in cross-border areas, and to progress towards territorial cohesion, the results show that, conversely, they have largely contributed to reinforcing unequal development. In the analysed border, the dynamics are an increasing distance between the more and less developed areas in the direct border space, and a privilege of urban areas, even if they are far from the borderline. A relevant conclusion of the text is that these unexpected results are partly a consequence of the design of the European programmes. Full article

The nineteenth century was a time of great economic, social, and political change. The population of a modernizing Europe began demanding more freedom, which in turn propelled the ongoing discussion on the philosophy of nature. This spurred on Central European sheep breeders to debate the deepest secrets of nature: the transmission of traits from one generation to another. Scholarly questions of heredity were profoundly entwined with philosophy and politics when particular awareness of “the genetic laws of nature” claimed natural equality. The realization that the same rules of inheritance may apply to all living beings frightened both the absolutist political power and the divided society of the day. Many were not prepared to separate religious questions from novel natural phenomena. Open-minded breeders put their knowledge into practice right away to create sheep with better wool traits through inbreeding and artificial selection. This was viewed, however, as the artificial modification of nature operating against the cultural and religious norms of the day. Liberal attempts caught the attention of the secret police and, consequently, the aspirations of scholars were suppressed by political will during approximately 1820–1850. Full article

Since the 1970s, the Dutch anti-radicalization strategy has been characterized by a close collaboration between police, welfare providers, community groups, and national and local governments. This comprehensive approach aims to identify individuals at risk of radicalization at an early stage, offering them alternative life paths and robustly responding to imminent threats. The comprehensive approach generally enjoys considerable support among professionals, politicians, and the populace at large. However, a swelling tide is asking for more evidence that this combination of “soft” and “hard” interventions is working. Parliament is asking the government to take more measures against emerging extremist threats, but also demands more proof that these measures are effective. Liberal parties in parliament are critical of the financial and societal costs of counter-terrorism and anti-radicalization measures, while right-wing parties worry the government is not tough enough. Over the past five years, the Dutch government has commissioned multiple evaluations. Specific incidents, such as the shooting in Utrecht on 18 March 2019, have been extensively evaluated. A more general review in 2015 examined the counter-terrorism policy as a whole, finding that the ideas for the comprehensive approach were sound; yet, that the investment of ministries in this approach fell apart in the perceived low-threat period, making the intended “comprehensive” strategy become a pick-and-choice approach. Currently, the national and local governments involved in anti-radicalization efforts keep asking for more evaluations. The Ministry of Social Affairs created an evaluation toolkit, which local governments can use to evaluate interventions. The City of Arnhem commissioned a review of its anti-radicalization efforts, which is mainly able to assess the plans and processes, but not yet the outputs of the interventions. Moving forward, more collaboration may be needed within or even between European countries to amass sufficient data to enable full effect evaluations. Full article