Mediation and security professions

The implementation of local crime prevention and urban security policies requires an array of skills that draw upon criminology, sociology, law, political science, statistics, management and urban planning.

For the past two decades, Efus has worked on professionalizing the function of crime prevention and security managers, which calls for a pluridisciplinary and transverse approach to crime prevention. Efus has thus created a Masters’ degree that takes into account the evolution of urban governance in the field of crime prevention.

Besides public authority professionals, other stakeholders are involved in designing and implementing security policies, such as the volunteer sector, civil society, businesses, and security companies. All these actors have different cultures, modus operandi and purposes, but they should all be involved in co-producing security, in particular at the local level.

> Positioning

Efus considers that the most efficient and democratic way to preserve security as a universal good and right is by working in partnership, and that such partnerships should be coordinated by duly trained professionals. Furthermore, crime prevention must be recognised as a profession per se at both national and European levels. It is also important to take into account the growth of the private security sector, which remains fragmented and should be more professionalized. Efus believes that all security actors should be trained according to common criteria, principles and methods and that European regulations on the role and competences of the private security sector should be harmonised.

> Report from the 2024 Security, Democracy and Cities conference:
– Prevention Professions