Criminal offences in shopping streets damages the liveability of neighbourhoods and drives 'honest' entrepreneurs out of shopping districts. Together with the Rotterdam Rijnmond police and the Municipality of Rotterdam, Veldacademie is developing a dashboard on which risky businesses and criminal misbehaviour can be quickly identified.
Rotterdam-Zuid is an area with many socio-economic problems. Therefore, the National Programme Rotterdam Zuid (NPRZ) was set up a few years ago to help residents in areas of education and employment. One of the goals of the programme is the improvement of the quality of life in South Rotterdam, among other things, by combating criminal misbehaviour in shopping areas. In the beginning, much attention was paid to larger shopping streets - such as the Beijerlandselaan - where there was already a lot going on. Now however, there is an increasing focus on smaller areas with incipient problems. For this reason, a pilot project was started with the Veldacademie to quickly identify problems in shopping districts and develop preventive measures to prevent them from spreading.
Livability under threat
Criminal activity in shopping areas can have a major impact on the liveability of a neighbourhood. Examples are tax evasion, cash laundering in shops or even illegal prostitution and drug trafficking. This type of abuse can grow into subversive crime. It often starts with the authorities involved having a 'bad feeling'. It then becomes apparent that certain branches are very common in a shopping street, even though there is no economic basis for them. Or that there are never any customers and the assortment is very outdated.
Activities that belong to an informal economy and actual subversive activities are sometimes difficult to distinguish, also for those involved. Subversion is often a gradual process that starts with a small extra income or a favour to friends, and gradually becomes part of a criminal organisation.
Strengthening the neighbourhood
Criminal activity in shopping areas often have a magnetic effect, worsening the overall image and safety of an area and making it increasingly difficult for 'honest' entrepreneurs. In order to combating misdemeanours, it is therefore very important to prevent it. Cooperation of various government agencies and empowering organisations in the neighbourhood, such as owners' associations and entrepreneurs' organisations, is crucial. But how do you recognise (incipient) criminal activities?
Preventive Dashboard of Criminal Offences
In collaboration with the Municipality of Rotterdam and the Rotterdam Rijnmond Police department, Veldacademie is developing a dashboard for the early detection of crime in shopping areas. Based on a scientific literature analysis and interviews with professionals, an overview of so-called 'criminogenic factors' was created for the dashboard. These are factors that can indicate criminal activity in shopping areas. We use this overview as a basis for collecting and analysing data by means of desk research and fieldwork, which is then published in a GIS database. In this way, the police and the municipality have an up-to-date overview of a shopping area and can - in case of suspicion of abuse - quickly check whether there are several signals, how many businesses are involved and how they are spread in the area. Depending on the situation, the municipality and/or police can then take preventive action, for instance, by checking certain places more often and/or by deploying a shopping street manager.
Action research with police, municipality and students
The research design uses action research methods with which we interpret the results with co-inquirers involved and determine follow-up steps together. A significant example is the joint 'fieldwork actions' in which employees of the police, municipality and students collect a lot of information about the shopping areas within a few hours online and in the areas and immediately process it in a GIS database. This includes information such as the physical condition of buildings, the up-to-dateness of the product assortment or checking registrations, for example in the business register. This makes it possible to map shopping areas in a short period of time. These actions also have extra value for professionals because they contribute to team building between different organisations and professionals learn a lot from each other during fieldwork.
Contribution of students
This research offers several opportunities for student contribution and is a good example of how the Veldacademie combines student research with practical projects. At the end of 2019, two students from Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences created visualisations of the Slinge shopping strip as part of their internship with the police. Under the supervision of the Veldacademie, they analysed and visualised business data in a GIS database. This database was validated by them through fieldwork in the area and interviews with police enforcement experts. The presentation of their results to the police and the municipality led to several follow-up questions and hypotheses. The Veldacademie also analysed the Wolphaertsbocht shopping district on the basis of these questions and further refined the methodology.
A student of criminology at the Erasmus University conducted research into potential factors for criminal activity in shopping areas for her thesis in 2020. This formed the basis for our 'checklist' for the fieldwork. Additional fieldwork was carried out by three interns from the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. These students developed various methods to present the research in a clear and visually attractive way. We will also involve trainees for the fieldwork in the follow-up to the project.
Results and follow-up
Our findings are presented in the form of maps, graphs and an online GIS dashboard that is accessible and easy to consult for all stakeholders. The dashboard contains information on some 450 retail units.
Two years later
Several violent incidents have taken place on Wolphaertsbocht after the investigation was completed in 2020. There have also been changes in the retail area. Therefore, the Directorate of Safe Charlois commissioned a new survey of Wolphaertsbocht and a number of side streets. The aim of this inventory is to see what changes have occurred. As in the previous study, a combination of fieldwork and desk research will be used for this inventory. The fieldwork is carried out by a team from the Safe Directorate, the police and the Field Academy. For the desk research, as much relevant data about the shops as possible is added from existing data sources. The findings will be updated on the online dashboard.