Inclusion of residents in identifying safety and security problems in local communities: The case of the City Municipality of Ljubljana
Purpose:
The aim of the article is to present some modern approaches to the involvement of citizens in the processes of ensuring safety and security. Furthermore, the article provides an overview of the web portal »Citizens’ Initiative Service« of the City Municipality of Ljubljana and the initiatives submitted by citizens on this portal in connection with safety and security issues. We identified the most common safety and security problems perceived by citizens and analysed the responses of the municipality and other stakeholders to the initiatives.
Design/Methods/Approach:
A review of functionalities of the web portal »Citizens’ Initiative Service« (City Municipality of Ljubljana) and citizens’ initiatives regarding safety and security issues was carried out. A quantitative analysis of initiatives submitted up to 2018 and a content analysis of a total of 1474 initiatives were performed.
Findings:
We found that the citizens of the City Municipality of Ljubljana are actively contributing to the improvement of safety and security in local communities through their initiatives. Most of the proposals were related to traffic safety, while in the field of security, initiatives were mostly associated to road issues, misdemeanours, vandalism, thefts, public order disturbance, and child safety.
Research Limitations / Implications:
The limitations of the research are related to the time frame of the analysis and limited access to certain initiatives.
Practical Implications:
The findings are useful for security managers at the municipal level, as they summarise the most common problems highlighted by residents of local communities and represent potential improvements of the web portal.
Originality/Value:
The article presents the example of good practice of collecting data on safety and security problems in local communities and involving the residents’ perceptions in the processes of planning future measures in the field of security.
UDC: 351.78+352
Keywords: safety, security, local community, municipality, residents, initiatives, online portal