City, security as quantity or quality?

An open debate

The recent recrudescence of criminal episodes that have affected Milan and its hinterland in recent months has changed the perception of the level of safety on the part of citizens generating new concerns about the usability of urban spaces in particular by young people and women.

Immediate was the demand for more men and technologies reopening debates and contrasts. The city remains a safe city, with complexities linked to its economic and social structure, its role as the leading city of the country and the recent developments following the pandemic that have also affected other metropolises impacting social life.

However, it is useful to ask ourselves about the management model of "security" that we want to adopt in our urban centers, through the analysis of the adequacy of infrastructure and the ability and autonomy in the acquisition, management and protection of individuals and their data; in the definition of the set of rules and algorithms necessary to make active monitoring and in the understanding of which no-core activities can be remote-controlled to optimize human resource and technology management models.

The management of safety and risk cannot find an unambiguous answer that cannot be more quantitative but qualitative: so just this way effective. Adaptability, resilience and autonomy are the pivots around which institutions, organizations and companies must rotate decisions and manage crises.

The need to manage our urban spaces to help citizens feel more secure, in an era of great insecurity generated and remarked by the war at the gates also leads to redesign the models of government and management of urban security.

The very rapid change of geopolitical scenarios, in fact, has changed and will change the balance of the international chess board, strongly affecting our fears and generating new social alarms and new tensions that we must prepare to face.

Giuseppe Calabrese CEO Secursat -  Think Tank "Risks and Scenarios"