I am starting work on a new project

 

Back in July 2020, I prepared and published my first article on securing schools and other educational institutions from criminal and terrorist threats. After publication, the article was edited several times, the last edits I made in January 2022.

The article was divided into two parts:

In the first part, I analyzed the current situation of child safety in educational institutions by the example of my country, as well as in the world, in parallel, I considered positive examples from foreign experience in this area. In addition, I gave my assessment of the level of risks and the degree of probable threats in the near future, and some forecasts about the prospects for the development of the situation;

In the second, I considered the possibilities of counteracting such threats, reducing the number of human casualties and the level of material damage. In addition, I proposed my own, hypothetical model of the system of ensuring the security of educational institutions.

While still working on the article, I noticed the difficulties in collecting materials for research, which have to be collected from various sources, and they often contain incomplete or unreliable (contradictory) information, there was no information on statistics at all, apparently, no one was simply not engaged in it. All this prompted me to create my own statistical research, which I did, spending almost a year on it, but it was worth it. The result of this work was the Handbook of Crimes and Terrorist Acts in Schools and Other Educational Institutions, which includes information on crimes and terrorist acts committed in educational institutions around the world, for the period from 2000 to 2023 inclusive. The publication contains not only statistical but also analytical material. The handbook is fully accessible to all who wish to use its materials without any restrictions.   I continue to collect and systematize data for the handbook, and as they accumulate I will try to post new, corrected and supplemented versions of the handbook.

When I was working on the materials for the handbook, I realized that the nature of the threat and its scale is much greater than I had originally assumed, I seriously underestimated the degree of danger, both at the moment and in the near future. The hypothetical model of the system of ensuring the security of educational institutions that I proposed in the first article could not effectively cope with it.

Improvement of the system I proposed initially will not give anything, it requires a completely different approach, the creation of a model (so far only hypothetical) built on completely different principles and with completely different tasks. 

The technical task that I have set for myself, if briefly, is the following: to create an effective model to ensure the safety of schools and other educational institutions, as well as places with a mass stay of children, from threats (existing and prospective), criminal and terrorist nature. At the same time, educational institutions should not change their main function, should not turn into prisons, bunkers or military bases.

Is this possible? I believe that it is, so I am starting to work on it. I will be glad to receive any help in working on the project, as well as communication with like-minded people, colleagues and everyone who is interested in this topic, who wants to make children's lives safer.  

You can contact me in any convenient way.

#project #childhood #children #safety #security #school #college #kindergarten #university #threat #crime #terrorism 

Join the project «Public Order and Safety»

 

Terrorism, mass murder, Internet fraud, theft, robbery, riots, rape, hooliganism, personal injury, street gangs, arms sales, drug trafficking and other crimes against the person, life, health and property. All this has become an integral part of everyday life. The dynamics of the development of the criminogenic situation around the world does not give grounds for optimistic forecasts for the near future.

The instinct of self-preservation is a basic instinct of a human being, therefore the most expensive and demanded commodity in the 21st century will be security, and investments in ensuring the safety of a person, life, health and property will be the most promising investment.

Crime and terrorism are changing, they are developing and progressing with modern realities. The law enforcement system is far behind them, lagging behind by several generations, it cannot effectively counter them. 

Modern threats require appropriate responses. There is a need for deep modernization of police and other law enforcement services and units, both state and international. We need new ways and methods of prevention, suppression and investigation of crimes, as well as terrorist acts, an effective system of analyzing and forecasting existing and future threats, the use of science and modern technologies in ensuring public security.

All these are the main goals and objectives of the international project «Public Order and Safety». We are an international, non-profit community of creative people engaged in applied research in the field of criminology, combating crime and terrorism. We not only study current and prospective threats, we offer concrete, practical solutions for their prevention and suppression.

Anyone can become a participant of the project, regardless of gender, age, country of residence, presence or absence of: specialized education, scientific or public merits, awards, work experience in the law enforcement system, membership in other scientific or professional organizations or communities.

We welcome everyone who shares our goals and values and is willing to join us. Together we will make the world a safer place!

https://www.orderandsafety.org/

 

#crime #terrorism #security #safety #criminology #police #project #public

The project in questions and answers

The publication of this column will appear periodically, as questions from participants and guests of the project will be received by the editorial office.

Here will be posted answers, explanations and comments on the questions sent to us, comments and suggestions, both on the project itself, and its site, blogs and groups in social networks*. 

* Unfortunately, the Facebook page of the Public Order and Safety Project is currently inaccessible, and creating a new one is not yet possible. The thing is that for unknown reasons Facebook has blocked the function of creating new pages and no one knows when that function will be restored. While these problems will be solved, I invite you to communicate and discuss in our blog. You can contact the editor-in-chief by emailing: mail@orderandsafety.org or by writing to his personal Facebook account. As soon as the community page is restored or a new one created, the information will be immediately posted on the blog and the project website as well as on the personal page of the editor-in-chief. Stay tuned.

You can send us your questions in any convenient way: through private messages, in comments to blog posts and social networks, send to the e-mail. We will try to promptly respond to all incoming messages to our address directly or indirectly related to the project. Questions and comments not related to the work of the project will be left unanswered.

At the moment there are no questions from the participants and guests, which is not surprising, given that the project has just been launched. We are sure that as it develops, user activity will grow.

In your messages, please indicate whether the question can be posted for public discussion and identify you as the author.

 

Regards.

Project Editorial Board.

#question #answer #project #public #order #safety

Thematic sections of the site and forum

As it was said before, the main direction of the Project is forming of a community of people professionally involved or interested in: fighting crime, terrorism, increase of efficiency of law enforcement agencies. And also to create an electronic platform, where participants could put their articles, reviews, critiques, scientific works and other materials. In addition, provide opportunities to organize and participate in discussions, collaborative projects, substantive discussions, debates, brainstorming sessions, etc.

All publications and discussions will be divided into thematic areas; at present (there may be more in the future) there are seven:

1. Issues of security of citizens against crimes and terrorist acts, on the streets and in other public places.

2. Issues related to organization of police and other law enforcement bodies' activities during pandemic (of global and local character) dangerous viral infections and in cases (under threats) of terrorist acts involving bacteriological weapons.

3. Issues of security of educational institutions and other places with mass stay of children from threats of criminal, terrorist and other nature.

4. General issues of forecasting, prevention and suppression of criminal and terrorist threats at an early stage.

5. Questions of security in different kinds of transport, prevention of emergency situations, prevention and suppression of crimes and terrorist acts committed by means of transport.

6. Prospects for the development of police services and other law enforcement agencies in the near future, management decisions aimed at effective reform of the law enforcement system, taking into account modern requirements.

7. Criminal and terrorist threats in the 21st century, probable directions of their development in the coming decades, forecasts of new types and methods of committing crimes and terrorist acts.

Again, this is a preliminary list of thematic directions which will be published in the homonymous sections of the project site and discussed at the forum, but it's not final. We will be glad to your suggestions and additions to this list.

At this we remind you that the Public Order and Safety project is planned as a highly specialized professional community. In this regard, suggestions related to the discussion of topics such as politics, economics, religion, conspiracy, interstate and international relations will not be considered. Questions about salaries, service in police services and units, pension security, legal and social protection of law-enforcement officers are also not considered. There are many other resources on the Internet to discuss such issues. 

In future publications we will look at the above thematic sections in more detail, and discuss such an important topic for the project participants as copyright protection of their publications. 

Regards.

Project Editorial Board.

#project #topic #section #direction #research

Forum - the project's main platform for discussions and debates

The main objective of the project «Public order and Safety» is to create an open platform to bring together people who are professionally involved and just interested in:

- ensuring public order and safety;

- combating of criminality and terrorism;

- activities of police services and other law enforcement agencies.

One of important directions for achieving this aim is to create an electronic discussion platform where project participants could publish their articles and questions, discuss interesting for them topics, comment and review publications, give and get advice, look for like-minded persons and co-authors.

We have long considered various options for such a platform, and came to the conclusion that of all possible options, most suitable is the forum. Yes, this format is considered outdated, the peak popularity of forums ended more than 10 years ago, they have been replaced by social networks, blogs and messengers. However, for the solution of tasks, scientific and journalistic and similar associations, it will continue to be relevant, both now and in the near future.

The advantages of the forum is that it allows participants to create new topics, set the rules for discussion, attach additional materials (photos, videos, documents, links, voting, etc.), comment on publications without a limit on the number of characters, insert quotations, respond in one message to several participants on specific issues. In addition, it has many other features that allow for remote discussion with maximum convenience for all its participants. In addition, the forum has a more convenient navigation, allowing you to create thematic sections and subsections, distributing the discussion on the thematic groups. It also has a more convenient built-in search, allowing you to quickly find the necessary topic or message using keywords and phrases.

Equally important in such a site is the ability to install language plugins, which allows all participants to comfortably lead a discussion despite language differences.  

At the moment, as the main option for the future of the forum considered platform - PHP Bulletin Board (phpBB). According to all requirements it meets the objectives, while having an open source and is absolutely free to use. In addition, phpBB has a number of other advantages:

- easy-to-use system of templates;

- Multilingual interface, language files translated into more than 50 languages and freely downloadable from the official phpBB website;

- Large community of users who are ready to help;

- Large number of available and updatable modifications.

We will be glad to any help in work on this forum and the project, anyone who has time, desire, technical knowledge and skills in programming and layout of sites. 

Regards.

Project Editorial Board.

#forum #project #public #order #safety

About the reasons for the creation, goals, and objectives of the project

As it was already discussed in previous articles, the need for such a project arose long ago, and here is why. If to look objectively at what happens in the world, as a minimum in the next 100 years, nothing good can wait for our planet. The real prospects look like this: overpopulation, depletion of resources, climate change, reduction of the role of man in the production process (as a consequence, unemployment), uncontrolled migration, epidemics, local military conflicts, crime, terrorism, growing popularity of extremist ideologies, etc. Sadly, this is how our nearest future looks like, and not only scientists, but also ordinary people begin to realize this, although they continue to indulge themselves with hopes that everything is not as bad as it seems. Accordingly, sooner or later, the majority will realize that the world around has changed, but it has changed not at all for the better.

Therefore, even now, those who are accustomed to assess the situation impartially and to calculate the prospects arise questions:

1. What criminal and terrorist threats will be relevant in the near future*?

* We are talking not only about those threats that are already known, but also about likely ones that law enforcement agencies have not yet encountered. 

2. What effective measures should be taken to prevent and combat these threats and to reduce the negative consequences they cause?  

It is important that in addition to those who ask these questions, there are those who are actively thinking and working on answers. Such people are few in number, but they exist. And in the very near future, these people and their developments will be very much in demand.

Today, attention to safety issues is being paid on the residual principle, but very soon this situation will change. First it will be the municipal and regional level, then the state level. Until recently, when choosing a place to live, a city or its district, people primarily considered the level of infrastructure development, transport, employment, accessibility of education, medicine, social protection. However, in recent years, priorities began to change, such a criterion as - safety, is becoming more important in making the final decision. To influence this situation by the usual methods of «inflating the statistical bubble»* is no longer possible. People assess the situation not by the numbers in law enforcement reports, but by what they observe every day on the street, hear from acquaintances, see in the news about incidents. For a long time now few people believe all these statistics with «positive dynamics», because the contrast with reality has become too impressive.

* deliberately distorted statistical indicators that do not reflect the real situation.

The emerging situation and the ever more actively growing public demand in the near future will require large-scale reforms of the law enforcement system, which in its current form is outdated and no longer able to withstand both existing and future threats. All this will cause an acute need for promising ideas in the field of public order and security and people capable of developing and implementing such projects in practice.

One of the main tasks of the «Public Order and Safety» project is to give these people an opportunity to make themselves and their ideas known. To provide them with an electronic platform for posting articles and other publications, discussions, debates, professional communication, organizing joint work, etc.  

In addition, one of the goals of the project is to restore «Information bridge» between colleagues from different countries (we mean informal communication on forums and social networks in communities of law enforcement). Thanks to the active development of the Internet in the early 21st century, these connections were successfully formed and many forums, groups in social networks, blogs and other tools for informal communication, sharing experiences and mutual assistance between specialists from different countries appeared. However, in the second decade, these ties began to actively break down, and by now they have been almost completely severed. The reason is banal - politics, or rather arguments on political topics, which almost instantly took communication out of a civilized format and reduced it to personalities, boorishness and insults. This confirms the rule that has destroyed more than one professional resource, that where politics begins, there is no place for constructive communication and professionalism.   Therefore, the «Public Order and Safety» project and all related resources will be out of politics, from the word «no». Any topics, even indirectly touching the politics, will be under the strictest prohibition, there will be no exceptions to this rule, and moderation in this direction will be especially tough.  We are confident that in time this will allow, at least in part, to restore ties between colleagues from different countries and return communication in a civilized format, within the framework of professional topics, exchange of experience and joint work. (This will be the subject of a separate section of the project, working title «Bridge of Safety», which is now being actively developed. If you want to join it, write to the editorial board, via private messages, social networks or e-mail). 

It may have turned out a bit muddled, but we believe that we managed to convey the main point: for what this project was conceived, for what audience is designed, what goals and objectives are set before it. If something is not clear, ask questions in the comments to the article, write a private message to the group in social networks, or e-mail, we will try to answer all.   

Regards.

Project Editorial Board.

#reasons #goals #tasks #participants #project

Public Order and Safety project format

In the previous publication, there was a brief description of the project, its goals, objectives, target audience, thematic component, as well as plans and prospects for development. Today I will tell a little about the planned format of its work.

Authors send their manuscripts to the project's editorial board, where they are checked for compliance with the thematic and informational concept of the project, if necessary, corrections are made which are obligatory agreed with the author, the thematic section is determined, after which the article (review, review, study, project, etc.) is accepted for publication.  

The main site of the project will be the central site for publishing the materials sent by the participants. All publications will be divided by thematic areas (to date there are seven such areas), perhaps in the future there will be an additional division, by author or community. A preliminary list of thematic sections with a description of promising topics and issues for research, will be published on this blog, in one of the next articles.

In addition to materials, personal pages of their authors will also be formed, containing brief information about their professional and scientific experience, interests, posted and planned publications, and ways of communication.  

The main platform for discussion of published materials will be a forum (it is currently in the process of being formed). Many will tell that for today Internet-forums is an obsolete and extinct format, it can be so, but for the purposes of the project, namely: civilized communication and constructive discussion, this type of electronic site is optimal. Let me remind you that the project is not commercial or populist. It is planned as a highly specialized resource, designed for a small, authors and participants of discussions, at best, the total number of users will be a few thousand people, but no more. Additional arguments about the benefits of this format, will be outlined in more detail, a little later, in a separate publication.

News about the work of the project and communities, as well as announcements of published materials will be posted in blogs and project groups on social networks.

For communication with the editors are available: private messages, groups, email, and a special section of the forum (will be available after the launch of the forum).

Your suggestions and requests can be submitted in comments. We will be glad to communicate with you in a constructive manner. 

Regards.

Project Editorial Board.

#group #project #format #publication #communication