Across Europe society is changing due to demographic, technological and economic developments. Communities are getting more diverse, both in real life and online. This challenges Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) to engage with, and to reassure, communities about safety and security matters in a trustful way.

The changing status quo is significantly shaping perceptions of policing, requiring adaptive strategies. To address these challenges, the KOBAN project will create an innovative, research and practice-based Community Policing (CP) initiative, adopting an evidence-based approach. It will focus on co-creation and collaborative security between LEA and non-LEA community members, leading to mutual trust and respecting each other’s contributions. This results in a greater sense of security, whilst contributing to an overall increase in the efficiency and effectiveness of securing all communities including those who are often considered hard to reach and engage. KOBAN’S Capability Model will identify proven methodologies, models, technologies, tools and best practices, and use them as a foundation for future proactive, co-active and reactive CP capabilities. This knowledge will help to build the AI Assistant as well as the App Factory for the development of further CP tools, methods and solutions tailored to the needs of stakeholders and adhering to social, legal, cultural, ethical and gender equality standards. These will be tested and validated in six pilot projects throughout Europe. KOBAN will support capacity building, embedding knowledge, skills and capabilities within organisations and communities leading to bespoke training for both police personnel, municipalities and citizens.

In short, KOBAN will lead a cultural and organisational transformation that addresses current fundamental barriers to effective community policing. With its Capability Driven Approach, KOBAN is setting the stage for future-proof community policing, both online and in the real world.

MKLab has a critical role in the project by leading its technical Work Package which is associated with the development of solutions for effective future-proof community policing. In particular, MKLab is responsible for the AI-driven early detection and risk projection of security threats focusing on the development of multilingual textual analysis and predictive analytics tools. Moreover, MKLab will also contribute to the development of the KOBAN Knowledge Base, the App Factory and the intelligent dashboard.