The overall LETSCROWD objective was to create guidelines for the implementation of the European Security Model in the protection of crowds during mass gatherings based on the human factors accompanied by set supporting toolkits. This involved new methods, policies, designs, tools and the piloting actions. The specific objectives are the following:
O1: This Objective was achieved by developing an extension of the European Security Model implementation guidelines in the form of a tailored Dynamic Risk Assessment (DRA) methodology. The novelty and innovation of the DRA methodology are represented by the smart correlation and clustering of weak signals to detect precursors of threats to the crowd in the dynamic risk assessment exercise carried out by LEAs.
O2: The Polic Making Toolkit (PMT) allows policy makers to define security strategies for a given event, it also shows relevant existing policies that must be taken into consideration by decision makers. The policy making toolkit was considered as an internal module of the application that is based on the policy calculation and the LETSCROWD Server as the main server that contains PMT and other modules develop within the project.
O3: The Crowd Modelling and Planning tool (CMP) has features that relate to computer vision, providing simulated training data, integration with the LETSCROWD Server to display crowd simulation results and a feature to assess communication around a mass gathering location. The final version of the Innovative Communication Procedures (ICP) – aim at improving crowd awareness and intercultural competences in the pre-event and the execution phases of an event. For the human-centred computer vision (HCV), three functionalities have been implemented: appearance-based person re-identification, attribute-based people search, and crowd density estimation. In addition, a final version of the Text Analytics Engine has been released. The Text Analytics Engine follows a dual approach based on the monitoring and inspection of mass gathering information on the Web.
O4: To achieve Objective 4 several Practical Demonstrations (PDs) have been conducted as a proof-of-concept of the LETSCROWD outcomes (methodologies, guidelines, technical outputs and scientific concepts). Demonstration planning and evaluation strategy is the first but also a reference point, a kind of roadmap, for the implementation and execution of demonstrators, and for social impact assessments and outcomes evaluation. For the “Demonstration planning and evaluation strategy”, three key elements were analysed: 1) LETSCROWD outcomes, 2) scenarios and 3) Use Cases.
O5: As requested in Objective 5, different methods were applied to assess the public security perception on mass gatherings such as: online surveys, interviews, focus groups, emotion and crime analysis of the web. A total of 234 responses were collected, considering surveys, interviews and focus groups.
O6: During its lifetime the LETSCROWD consortium produced and updated a detailed dissemination plans and reports releasing several deliverables with this purpose. For the exploitation plan, the consortium was focused on the identification of LETSCROWD outcomes and the strategies for the different individual exploitation plans.
