The Multiscalar Nature of Urban Security and Public Safety: Crime Prevention from Local Policy to Policing in Lisbon (Portugal) and Memphis (the United States)

Abstract

The article contributes to recent discussions on convergence/divergence of local policies for urban security and public safety amid globalization, exploring comparatively local approaches to crime prevention and explaining differences/similarities through multilevel connections. I analyze situational prevention, social policy, and proximity/community policing in two “not-so-global” metropolises: Lisbon, where security is the goal of a wide set of policies in many fields, and Memphis, where social problems have become security issues and policing the only game in town. Differing approaches are explained on the grounds of political traditions, neoliberalization of policy, and multilevel relations among polities. I discuss implications for the relation between policy and policing: Police attempts at social outreach amid coupling/decoupling of security with/from urban policy, and the “mission creep” of policing when it is expected to lead prevention. Conclusions advocate that policy reform is necessary at many levels to deal with the intersection of crime, retrenching welfare, and aggressive policing in U.S. cities such as Memphis.

A political-economy analysis of the provision of urban anti-crime technologies in a model with three cities

“…He contends that consistent with the so called "Broken Windows" hypothesis, total crime is an increasing function of a neighborhood's level of degradation where degradation is measured by the level of vacant housing and the age of the housing stock. Examining the case of Memphis, Tennessee, Tulumello (2018) argues that policy reform at many levels is needed to address a situation in which social problems have become security issues. Lacoe et al (2018) provide a careful analysis of the nexuses between urban crime and private investment in the form of building permits in the "lagging neighborhoods" of Chicago and Los Angeles.…”

Accountability and Patchwork Governance in Urban Rail Interchanges: Junctions of London Crossrail and Stockholm City Line Compared

“…The Stockholm County Council as well as Trafikverket (the national transport agency) are committed to outsourcing management and operations of public transport (Ek Österberg, 2016; Hedström et al, 2016; Norén, 2014). These developments follow a general New Public Management (NPM) trend, where public works and services have been deregulated and opened for competition—also within the domain of safety and security (Newlove-Eriksson, Giacomello, & Eriksson, 2018; Tulumello, 2017). This now well established outsourcing concept has been criticized for leading to lack of transparency and clarity in responsibility for work done by different entrepreneurs in the City Line project, as well as to an inadequate working environment from the perspective of employees and unions; safety representatives, for example, are unable to gain access to and assess workplaces (Nordlund & Lönnström, 2013; Sanne, 2015).…”

“…That governance structure affects accountability is an uncontroversial observation (Tulumello, 2017). Organizational complexity, lack of institutional memory, and plurality of public and private actors with unclear division of responsibilities breed confusion and affect safety, security, liability and transparency.…”

Community Public Safety Evaluation System Based on Location Information Service Architecture

“…He discussed the implications of the relationship between policy and policing: the police tried to conduct social propaganda under the combination/decoupling of security and urban policies and the "task crawling" of policing (which is expected to lead to prevention work). However, it has not completely solved the practical problems of community public safety [2]. An example researched by Lapsley is that compared with Victoria, the impact and consequences of bushfires in California and the characteristics and risks of bushfires in California have many similarities, and parts of California have suffered huge lives and property damage.…”