Safe Cities

A timely books that details the concerted effort and integration of new technology it takes to make communities safer for everyone. It’s a basic human right to feel and be safe in your community—where you live, work, and play. But, few people know or understand everything it takes to make this possible, including making high-tech solutions available to local law enforcement and first responders. From fire departments detecting fires within seconds with thermal imaging to police departments detecting gunfire immediately through gunshot detection sensors, technology continues to evolve daily. Even surveillance cameras have taken great strides from the grainy images of years past, and just one camera can make a difference (read about how police identified the Boston Marathon bombers through a department store’s video camera inside!). Safe City teaches the public how to harden targets and protect their homes, businesses, communities, themselves, and their loved ones. It takes a community effort to help reduce and prevent crime, and Safe City answers the questions people have along with pointing out many more that should be asked. “As someone who is politically active, and involved with urban development, this book is like a playbook for mayors, city council, and county commissioners.”—Topher Morrison, author of The Profitable CEO and managing director of Key Person of Influence “Provides a fact-filled insight into community policing . . . This a good read that delivers a solid understanding of the ‘how and why’ of the future of community policing in America.” —Retired Deputy Chief Metro Detroit Police Department

First published in 2006, as numerous local authorities of European cities invest in the attractiveness of their urban areas in the hope of attracting new inhabitants and economic activities, safety has become a topical subject. Perceived safety is a major factor in a city's attractiveness and fear of crime can have a large impact on location decisions, with ensuing economic consequences. This book examines the role of security in urban development and its local policy implications. Comparing eleven European cities, it analyses how actual and perceived security is evolving, and what the economic, social and spatial consequences are of a changing perceived security. While crime has decreased in eight of the eleven cities, fear of crime has increased in all of them. This book discusses the factors influencing this fear, including the role of the media, the quality and maintenance of the built environment, socio-economic inequality and terrorism.

Perceived safety is a major factor in a city's attractiveness and fear of crime can have a large impact on location decisions, with ensuing economic consequences. This book examines the role of security in urban development and its local policy implications. Comparing eleven European cities, it analyses how actual and perceived security is evolving, and what the economic, social and spatial consequences are of a changing perceived security.

Examining the rising interest in quality-of-life offences, anti-social behaviour and incivilities in urban public spaces, this study explores the rising importance of policing, crime control and community safety policies in the context of the ongoing urban restructuring in old-industrial cities. This is achieved through an extensive exploration into the making and remaking of urban spaces in the city of Glasgow. In so doing, this book puts forward a strong and innovative theoretical argument. Framed in a critical Marxist perspective that draws on debates within German-speaking critical theory and Marxism, this study argues for the centrality of human social praxis in our understanding of contemporary cities. It engages with questions over the production of social space, a (fragmented) social totality and human agency, which so far have only received limited attention in Anglo-American debates.

Ordinary people are natural experts on safety in their own communities. The key to creating a city where people feel safe is to give citizens input into developing safer environments for themselves. This book offers a set of easy-to-follow guidelines - well illustrated with photos - that can be used to improve urban safety. It also includes success stories on the ways that ordinary people, working in partnership with local governments and agencies have taken the initiative to fight back against violent crime in public housing, transit, parks and open places, underground parking, schools, houses and neighbourhoods.

Winner of the American Society of Criminology 2015 Michael J. Hindelang Book Award for the Most Outstanding Contribution to Research in Criminology Since the mid-1990s, the fast-growing suburb of Amherst, NY has been voted by numerous publications as one of the safest places to live in America. Yet, like many of America’s seemingly idyllic suburbs, Amherst is by no means without crime—especially when it comes to adolescents. In America’s Safest City, noted juvenile justice scholar Simon I. Singer uses the types of delinquency seen in Amherst as a case study illuminating the roots of juvenile offending and deviance in modern society. If we are to understand delinquency, Singer argues, we must understand it not just in impoverished areas, but in affluent ones as well. Drawing on ethnographic work, interviews with troubled youth, parents and service providers, and extensive surveys of teenage residents in Amherst, the book illustrates how a suburban environment is able to provide its youth with opportunities to avoid frequent delinquencies. Singer compares the most delinquent teens he surveys with the least delinquent, analyzing the circumstances that did or did not lead them to deviance and the ways in which they confront their personal difficulties, societal discontents, and serious troubles. Adolescents, parents, teachers, coaches and officials, he concludes, are able in this suburban setting to recognize teens’ need for ongoing sources of trust, empathy, and identity in a multitude of social settings, allowing them to become what Singer terms ‘relationally modern’ individuals better equipped to deal with the trials and tribulations of modern life. A unique and comprehensive study, America’s Safest City is a major new addition to scholarship on juveniles and crime in America. Crime, Law and Social Change's special issue on America's Safest City

Ordinary people are natural experts on safety in their own communities. The key to creating a city where people feel safe is to give citizens input into developing safer environments for themselves. This book offers a set of easy-to-follow guidelines - well illustrated with photos - that can be used to improve urban safety. It also includes success stories on the ways that ordinary people, working in partnership with local governments and agencies have taken the initiative to fight back against violent crime in public housing, transit, parks and open places, underground parking, schools, houses and neighbourhoods.