#policecomets

[yourpolicecomets]

Are you familiar with the concept of WhatsApp buurtpreventie?

It is a national operating foundation to increase inhabitants sense of safety and quality of life.

The purpose of the WhatsApp groups is to enable volunteers to

Facilitate as much as possible to keep their neighborhood safe and liveable

Provide municipalities and government agencies with advice and information

For our PREMIUM project we want to make use of this platform to increase the contact point between civilians and wijkagenten.

For more information, for example on how to find a group in your neighborhood visit https://www.gemeentemaastricht.nl/stad/uw-buurt/buurt-whatsapp

[yourpolicecomets]

Wijkagenten Workshop

We can finally reveal the details of our upcoming workshop on which we have been working on the past weeks. Next Tuesday (9.03) we are going to run a pilot test with the first group of wijkagenten. The 2 hour workshop is an interactive educational event with various objectives: 1. share and explain the new report “Kennis op straat” (2021) 2. data collection for our next steps 3. gaining personal contact with a broader range of wijkagenten.

The workshop consists of a multimedia presentation where the key points of “Kennis op straat” will be presented. To keep the interest and interaction high we also prepared a Kahoot filled with fun facts and basic knowledge questions (the last post is an example). Additionally, there will be two breakout room sessions where wijkagenten will be able to discuss focal points of the report.

Outline:

Video

Presentation

Kahoot

Breakout room

Kahoot

Breakout room

We are excited to see how the first pilot test of the workshop will run and cannot wait to share updates with you as soon as possible !

[yourpolicecomets]

What do the next weeks have in store for us? /Update on the test-pilot workshop

With this post, we want to update you on our workshop and our next steps. Our test-pilot workshop last Tuesday went well! 🚀 Finally, we all had the chance to virtually meet many wijkagenten and hear from a first-hand source about their work/issues at work. It was super interesting to listen to all the different opinions and we plan to use the feedback to further improve the workshop. The Police Comets are convinced that the newly gained insights are also useful to elaborate possible solutions and hands-on recommendations for the politie Limburg. This meaning that the next weeks have some more brainstorming sessions, productive discussions and hopefully great ideas in store for us.

Being happy about the Police Comets’ outcomings and current progress so far, we are also motivated for the upcoming midterm presentations and getting to know the progress from the other PREMIUM teams.

[yourpolicecomets]

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Our Premium journey is progressing rapidly. Three fun facts about the Dutch police force:

- Yearly up to 100 officers take part in international peace missions as volunteer.

- A dutch synonym for the police is 'prinsemarij' (derived from the German 'Prinzerei').

- Because of the many Dutch waters, there's a seperate department 'Police on waters'. See the picture above.

[yourpolicecomets]

Areas of improvement

Now that you know what ondermijning is about and the wijkagenten deal with, we want to introduce you to the main issues that the community-oriented police officers are facing.

• Transfer of signals

• Identifying ondermijning

• Knowledge of ondermijning

• Follow-up of signals

In all steps of ondermijning, different problems have been identified. One of the issues is the wrong recording of signals (i.e. information about suspicious behaviour) and the lack of communication between blue and grey police officers.

The lack of knowledge about the term ondermijning represents another area of improvement. This knowledge level can differ between the police officers, but in general, there is insufficient attention to the topic as it is also not a separate training topic.

Another challenge is to increase the awareness that the follow-up of the signals is a long-term investment. Although some signals might not lead to new findings and solve/prevent cases, it is inevitable to follow the signals. Regarding the identification of ondermijning, the main issues are that this part gets overshadowed by other daily tasks.

What would you expect to be the issue to tackle first?

[yourpolicecomets]

You might be wondering: Who are we referring to when we talk about “Wijkagenten”?

Wijkagenten are community oriented police officers and can be seen as the eyes and ears of their neighbourhood. For example, they use social media to share and gather targeted information and to build relationships with the members of the community. Those officers are essential in the fight against ondermijning. Currently, 200 wijkagenten are actively patrolling the streets in the Politie Limburg district.

[yourpolicecomets]

What is „ondermijning“?

Today, we are going to introduce you to “ondermijning” (subversive crime). The term relates to visible and harmful effects that organised crime has on society. Organised crime as for example phantom housing, money laundering and the illegal production of drugs. Effects of those organised law violations range from a negative impact on societal values and standards to a stronger interconnection and decreased boundaries between the legitimate society and the underworld. Also, the dark characteristics of the underworld become status quo as society is more connected to it. Another dangerous threat is the decrease of collective resilience. Meaning that more people participate in a crime, look away from problems and knowingly and unknowingly profit from crimes. We hope you are as enthusiastic to learn more about the topic as we are!

[yourpolicecomets]

Hello everyone, Police Comet Hasan Can is at your service! Growing up amidst challenges nurtured me to push myself above my limits and to always test myself; the most current ones being my master’s in Forensics, Criminology, and Law and this very PREMIUM project. Having hobbies that range from literary arts to strategy games, I believe in our team’s ability to achieve results greater than expected. 💪

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hcakcam | Gmail: [email protected]