Enhancing the built environment and network infrastructure for community safety

Challenge

Lebanon’s police, the Internal Security Forces, sought to enhance partnerships with the community, improve outreach and offer a more proactive approach to policing that better responds to local safety and security needs. The ISF identified that people were being discouraged from interacting with them at police stations due to the unwelcoming and poor physical state of the buildings. They also identified that outdated processes were preventing them from exploiting available police data, and that existing infrastructure to inform proactive problem solving was vulnerable to resource shocks. This was particularly apparent following the massive devaluation of the Lebanese pound and accompanying hyperinflation in late 2019 onward, which resulted in a nationwide electricity crisis. The crisis threatened to bring critical data gathering, logging and analysis to a halt, which would have harmed the Police of Beirut’s awareness of crime patterns, locations and (alleged) perpetrators, and the full extent of crimes, including those that are gender related.

Approach

As part of a broader effort to introduce a more community-oriented policing service in Lebanon, Siren in 2014 launched a pilot project in Ras Beirut Police Station. The pilot aimed to drive a cultural shift in the ISF by putting the principles of community policing into practice. It involved training officers, comprehensively refurbishing the station, enhancing management structures, improving the shift system and rationalising work processes to ensure the right people were in the right roles. Based on the success of this model, Siren in 2018 refurbished Ramle and Raouche Police Stations and guided the ISF in institutionalising it across Beirut and beyond.

The model included supporting the ISF to use police data as a pillar of proactive, community-oriented policing. This required a shift from paper to digital processes, which Siren promoted by developing a digital platform that captures and analyses ISF data to inform decision making.

To keep the platform operational during the electricity crisis and reduce vulnerability to future resource shocks, Siren installed solar panels in ISF facilities that uphold the digital data collection and analysis network. Siren also installed solar power systems to the cameras of the Police of Beirut’s CCTV network and conduced critical network repairs. This work prevented the collapse of this vital asset, which provides 82% of ISF intelligence used in crime analysis.

Outcomes

• The Ras Beirut station became Lebanon’s first to be accessible for people with disabilities, and the first with gender disaggregated bathroom and sleeping facilities for ISF staff and detainees.

• The ISF has created building standards that are gender inclusive, supporting a more representative and responsive police force.

• Critical data gathering and analysis infrastructure installed and maintained, facilitating the ISF’s wider digital transformation.

• Enhanced mainstreaming of gender and inclusion data and analysis in order to prevent and respond to crimes, including those of a gendered nature and committed against the person.