Conference Coalition for Safety

“Safety is complex, but when we work together, systemic change comes within reach,” said Tabo Goudswaard, Creative Leader of the Coalition for Safety, at the opening of the conference. To be able to change systems, one must be willing and able to make choices. Within the field of safety, design thinking can contribute to making such choices, observed Anneke van Dijk, Secretary-General at the Ministry of Justice and Security, during the first conversation of the conference with moderator Goudswaard. “Design thinking helps to approach a problem differently. By looking at it from another perspective, the immediate problem is no longer the starting point for finding solutions; instead, it is the value you wish to uphold.”

In the search for such solutions, civil servants working within the field of safety sometimes find themselves caught up in the pressures of daily affairs, noted Goudswaard. That does not necessarily have to be a negative thing, Van Dijk argued. “If I have a flat tyre and want to repair it, I am, in fact, also dealing with the issue of the day. However, by addressing it immediately, I am also acting in a future-oriented way, for instance by ensuring that I can still arrive somewhere on time tomorrow. Responding promptly to injustice in society is, I believe, also a very natural reaction.”

Nevertheless, it is helpful to consciously look for solutions beyond the demands of daily affairs, said Van Dijk. “Within our field, it is important to be able to create time and space for that. It requires collaboration, because one will need to step beyond one’s own boundaries. In my view, it is also valuable to show that you consider it important to take the time for this.”

The blind spot in urban design

During the conference, much attention was given to the choices we must make in order to enhance safety for women. Designer and researcher Eva James is an expert in shaping public spaces so that they feel more pleasant and safer for women. According to her, there is a blind spot in the Netherlands when it comes to urban design for women. “I realised this a few years ago when I conducted research on the concept of ‘hanging out’. Why is it that in the Netherlands people hardly spend time hanging around in public places, as they so naturally do in squares in Italy or Portugal? That was when I discovered that women, in particular, do not hang around at all.” In her research, she found an inspiring design example from Vienna, a city that, according to James, has set a good example for years. In a photograph she showed, young women were seen relaxing in hammocks in a park. “We know that girls enjoy this: having their feet off the ground and being able to keep an overview of their surroundings.” According to her, there is still much work to be done to create more of these kinds of designs in public spaces.

“When you design places, safety should be the minimum starting point,” James continued, quoting the phrase, ‘Inequality is spatially reinforced by design, from our systems all the way down to individual public spaces.’ She presented a statistic indicating that 42 percent of women have at some point felt unsafe in public spaces. “I find it shocking that women’s behaviour changes as a result of how public spaces are designed. Women cycle longer routes in the dark. They make different choices from men. That is because our world has, in fact, been designed in reverse. Historically, public spaces have been designed largely by and for male urban planners and architects, whereas we should really be designing for the people who need it most.”

James presented research showing that men and women actually experience public space differently. When men walk towards a dark area, they tend to look mainly at the centre of that space. Women, however, are inclined to scan the edges with their eyes, presumably searching for possible danger. “If you know that, you might ask yourself whether you should, for example, place a Cruyff Court right in the middle of a square. By doing so, you push girls to the edges, into places where no one sees them and where they feel unsafe.” According to her, the Netherlands is lagging behind in finding better design solutions for public spaces. “So make sure this is included in tenders and procurement processes,” she urged. “And always ask the question: have we considered those women and those girls?”

Victim device: mor than an alarm button

Another topic that directly relates to women’s sense of safety is the victim device, which can help protect victims of domestic violence.

Roy Zeestraten of Reclassering Nederland (Translation: The Dutch Probation Service) explained this pilot project. The portable device enables victims to be alerted when individuals who have been issued a restraining order and are wearing an ankle monitor come dangerously close to their location.

The introduction of this device required a new way of working within Reclassering, Zeestraten said. “Normally, our organisation only has contact with offenders. Through the victim device, we also come into contact with victims. That requires a completely different kind of communication,” he explained.

What made a particularly strong impression during the conference was the story of Carmen (a pseudonym), who shared her personal experience. Her ex-partner had threatened to kidnap her children and to kill her. The victim device had helped her enormously, she said. During the time she wore it, there were seven alerts indicating that her stalking ex had come too close. “Thanks to the device, I have got part of my life back,” she said. “I can relax again.”

The successful implementation of the victim device also depends on making the right choices, such as the name of the device itself. From the audience came the question of whether the name might carry an unnecessarily negative connotation, as it reinforces the victim identity of the person wearing it. Carmen herself did not refer to it as a victim device. “I just call it an alarm button,” she said.

Another crucial decision concerns the moment of intervention. “Sometimes we choose not to call the victim,” Zeestraten explained. “It may happen that the offender and the victim cross paths on a motorway. It is quite difficult to decide whether to issue an alert based solely on two dots on a map representing the offender and the victim. We want to prevent them from meeting at all costs, but we also do not want to intervene too quickly, as every alert has an impact.”

The audience was invited to look at the digital simulation and stand up at the moment they would choose to intervene if they were the supervisor. Gradually, more and more people in the room stood up. The one who stood up first, by a considerable margin, was Carmen.

Inner Circle at JC Zaanstad

Former Innovation Manager Eileen Ruiter of the Justicial Complex (JC) Zaanstad spoke about the impact that the Inner Circle project has had there. Within the sometimes unsafe environment of the prison, Inner Circle provides a weekly safe space where detainees and staff can sit together in a circle and be vulnerable.

“The first time, we simply placed chairs in a circle and sat down. And that was it,” Ruiter recalled about the modest beginnings. The programme is inspired by an American model for self-restoration. Within the circle, participants work on breaking patterns, taking responsibility, and developing self-awareness.

Inner Circle is also about making choices. “We realised that we may not yet know exactly how we should implement this at JC Zaanstad, but we do know that we want something different from what we are currently doing. And that is the choice we consciously make,” Ruiter said. This deliberate choice for change has sparked broader innovations within the complex. The national innovation team of the Dutch Custodial Institutions Agency (DJI) now provides professional support for the initiative. Ruiter concluded: “If you choose to do things differently from how you have always done them, you will not get the results you have always received.”

Choice café: small choices, big impact

During an interlude called the “Choice café”, Goudswaard held spontaneous conversations with several attendees about small decisions that have had a large impact, irrational choices that brought joy, and the fear of regret in decision-making. Mirjam Gaal shared how a few instinctive decisions led her to work as a trend researcher at Buro Zorro.

Ivo, UX Coordinator at the police, explained that making choices sometimes also means knowing when to say no. “A year ago, I was also at a turning point when I was asked to review the sustainability of our information systems,” he said. “The conditions to perform that role effectively were not in place, so I had to say no, much to my regret. It was a difficult conversation, but it was also a way to send a signal. In hindsight, making that choice saved me a lot of trouble.”

Safety in our own hands with Woven Streets

The conference continued with designer Shruti Venkat, who highlighted Woven Streets. Woven Streets are interactive sessions in which the themes of women’s safety, surveillance, and technology are explored. These sessions involve conversations, envisioning possible futures for society, and actually creating some of the ‘wearables’. “The aim of this project is to explore what safety could look like if we could take it back into our own hands. If we could design safety for ourselves, what would that look like?” she explained. “I realised that there was a need to create a space where women could come together, talk about these issues, and take action, rather than sitting at home feeling helpless.” The project has already produced several speculative designs, such as a mask behind which someone could feel safe. According to Venkat, such objects are not necessarily intended as marketable products, but rather as a starting point for conversation. “Sometimes the designs serve as provocations. If someone sees a mask like that and says they would never wear it, you have already begun a conversation about the kind of safety you want and the choices you need to make to achieve it.”

Launching 40+ publications: from vision to action

After the conference, attendees had the opportunity to continue the dialogue over lunch and to visit the ‘Designing Society Expo’ at Ketelhuisplein.