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General Overview

Type of stakeholder

EICS Framework

Region of Reference

Africa
Asia
Australia
Europe
North-America
South-America
World

Description

Organisations (NGOs) and citizens are involved in guarding neighbourhoods, improving personal safety, with a specific focus on women and girls. There is general acceptance of the notion that physical surveillance aids in improving security and reduces the fear of crime. The citizen led surveillance teams can be supported by surveillance cameras.

Each neighborhood develops a local plan of interventions that the city council funds and supports, i.e. local grassroots policy making. In some cases, a safe company service has been implemented whereby women returning home late at night can have a person charged with ensuring women’s and girl’s safety to accompany them.

Facts/Illustrations/Case studies

In Seoul, the scheme employed 800 women from marginalised groups and low-income households in 2014 that patrolled the neighbourhood and escorted women and girls home, late at night.
More than 1,000 citizen volunteers were enlisted to accompany women home late at night, more than 2,000 were registered as volunteers for patrols under the Safer Neighbourhoods for Women programme

Types of Impact

To/from the stop/station/rank✓
Waiting for train/bus/paratransit✕
In the vehicle✕
At interchanges✕

Day-time travel✓
Night-time travel✓
Peak-time travel✓
Off peak-time travel✓

All travel time categories can be positively impacted by this intervention, although the literature has examples of some targeted operations that focus on peak hour travel times or night-time travel, especially if there is evidence to support particular times of day being a problem.

Bus✕
Train✕
Rideshare✕
4 wheelers informal✕
3 wheelers informal✕
2 wheelers informal✕
Cycling✓
Walking✓

Walking and cycling will be impacted by this intervention.

Girls✓
Boys✕
Adult Women✓
Men✕
Elderly Women✓
LGBTQI+✕

Resources

Monetary Resource Requirements
Cost is dependent upon the staff cost of trained security personnel. In high labour cost environments, it can be viewed as an expensive measure and has been increasingly replaced (or supplemented) with technology-based approaches to surveillance, as it may require significant numbers of staff across the public transport network of a large city. In Seoul, many involved in the programme are volunteers, which reduces the costs.
Capital Cost Requirements Operational Cost Requirements
Non-Monetary Resource Requirements
Surveillance personnel need not necessarily be highly skilled to be effective. This intervention is, however, only effective when implemented and needs to be implemented as frequently as possible to achieve maximum impacts. The measure does not require significant political will before implementation can commence.
Skills Time Political Will

SWOT Analysis

Quick to be implemented
Perceived to be very effective
Relatively low skills required
Scalable to suit budget and need for the resource

As soon as implementation stops, the benefits stop
Not effective in parts of the neighbourhood where the intervention is not physically present

Job creation
Other crimes also reduced
Crime against other population groups may also reduce

Can be resource-intensive
Success is dependent on the quality of leadership

Effectiveness

Literature is scarce, although there are various anecdotal stories that were discovered, including in Africa. The effectiveness is, however, underpinned by the more extensive literature based on physical security guards and policing, which has a similar effect and results.

Perception by (female) passengers
Perception by governing bodies
Level of confidence in these ratings

Implementation

Implementation of this intervention can happen quickly and be ramped up over time, depending on the availability of trained staff. The benefits ensue immediately upon implementation and improve as perpetrators become aware of the physical policing presence. Unfortunately, as soon as deployment stops, the benefits start to disappear.

Implementation timeframe

0-1 year✓
1-3 years✓
>3 years✕

Timeframe to realise benefits

0-1 year✓
1-3 years✓
>3 years✕

Scale of Implementation

National

Regional

City

Station or
Suburb

Ease of Implementation

As this is a labour-based approach, it can be easy to implement. Targeted approaches to increase cost-effectiveness may be more difficult to implement, based on the need to generate the evidence base required to inform targeting. The skill level and availability of personnel can also affect the ease of implementation of this measure.

List of References

Asia

1. Seoul Solution 2016 . Fighting Violence against Women: Making Seoul a Safer City for Women Project . Seoul Solution, September

SHE CAN Tool