PACTESUR – Protecting Allied Cities against Terrorism by Securing Urban Areas

PACTESUR was implemented across a network of urban areas, with the City of Liège as one of its lead partners alongside 16 other municipalities involved in the wider consortium.

The project responded to a shared European context: growing citizen demand for greater protection of crowded and open public spaces, in a climate shaped by the aftermath of terrorist attacks. This shift in public attitudes increased demand for solutions such as CCTV and other surveillance technologies, while also raising the need to reconcile new security measures with the standards, legal frameworks, and everyday life of local communities.

• In-depth reflection on standards, legal frameworks and local governance, aiming to produce recommendations for a legal framework that better accommodates cooperation between police forces and the standardization of security-related practices (for example, the use of drones or facial recognition).
• Specialized training for local security operators, with each partner in city organizing a European Week of Security.
• Awareness-raising among citizens and politicians.
• Identification of the most suitable local investments for securing open and touristic public spaces.

PACTESUR is a three-year project, financed by the European Commission, aiming to improve cities’ capacity to secure their urban areas against terrorism. It was led by the City of Nice, together with the City of Liège, the City of Turin, the European Forum for Urban Security and ANCI Piemonte (the Piedmont branch of the National Association of Italian Municipalities).

Through a bottom-up approach, the project gathered local decision-makers, security forces, urban security experts and other professionals to shape European local policies for securing public spaces. Work focused on crowded places, transport and mobility, drawing on comparative research into current legislation across European countries, working groups and expert committees to inform local investments, training and policy recommendations.

A wide range of stakeholders took part in the project, each in a different capacity:

• City of Nice (France) – project leader
• City of Liège (Belgium)
• City of Turin (Italy)
• European Forum for Urban Security (Efus)
• ANCI Piemonte – Associazione Nazionale Comuni Italiani, Piedmont branch (Italy)
• Local decision-makers
• Security forces and local police
• Urban security experts and urban planners
• IT developers and designers
• Trainers and front-line practitioners
• Citizens, including young and older people

PACTESUR’s methodology rested on research and comparative study of current legislation in different European countries, combined with working groups and expert committees that brought together the project’s diverse stakeholders.

This translated into a model of participatory governance and co-production of safety and security: a bottom-up approach uniting cities, local police, experts, private actors and citizens through workshops, police academies and exchanges, and calls for participation open to partner and follower cities alike. The aim was to ensure genuine representativeness of the many European cities and stakeholder groups involved in shaping decisions, following the pathway of participation leading to a shared understanding of risks, co-designed strategies, improved local implementation and, ultimately, stronger protection of public spaces. This approach depended on building trust between institutions and citizens, strengthening local capacity for decision-making, and improving coordination between municipal and national levels.

Communication and awareness-raising ran throughout the project as a mechanism in their own right: campaigns targeted citizens, politicians and public authorities, with Efus leading dissemination toward EU institutions and international networks and extending the conversation about security beyond Europe to Latin America and Africa, promoting citizens’ role as co-producers of security.

PACTESUR combined behavioral and social-practice innovation:

• Behavioral innovation: the project responded to an increased citizen demand for technologies like CCTV after terrorist attacks, reflecting a broader shift in public attitudes toward surveillance and safety.
• Social practice innovation:
  • Workshops bring together citizens, private security, and local police to co-design safety strategies.
  • Intergenerational exchanges promoting dialogue between young and older citizens.
  • Collaboration between cities across Europe, sharing best practices and building a transnational security culture.

Cross-sector collaboration was central throughout: annual public-private security cooperation workshops, local workshops involving private security actors, public authorities and citizens, and exchanges between police forces, experts and private companies, all feeding into shared recommendations for cities and the European Commission.

PACTESUR financed tools and equipment for securing public spaces, dedicated to improving the skills of municipal police and the quality of cooperation between public and private security actors. These included:

• Immersive 360º / 3D videos, made accessible through common mobile virtual reality viewers.
• A shooting simulator with five screens offering 300º immersion training.
• AI-enhanced CCTV systems deployed in public spaces for real-time surveillance, with algorithms designed to detect suspicious behavior and patterns.
• Mobile applications enable citizens to report incidents and receive alerts, strengthening real-time communication between police and the public.
• Crisis communication platforms developed under PACTESUR to manage emergencies efficiently and ensure coordinated responses across agencies and cities.
• Digital training tools shared across police academies in different countries, facilitating knowledge exchange and harmonized practices.
• Public-private coordination tools: digital systems to streamline collaboration between public authorities and private security.

Alongside these digital and training technologies, the project also worked on environmental and urban design, identifying local investments to secure open public spaces and experimenting with new spatial strategies – for example, securing the oil port of Liège Wandre – drawing on the well-established principles of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED).

• Sharing knowledge, good practices and tools – not only between representatives of European local authorities and local security actors, but also between town planners and security and terrorism experts – proved essential for developing new local policies to secure public spaces against threats.
• Local authorities played a fundamental role, as they are the level of governance closest to citizens.
• Specialized training courses were delivered for European security actors in the three partner cities, equipping them with the knowledge and tools needed to better secure their public spaces.
• Security by design: in Liège, a system of removable barriers to protect the Place Saint Lambert and Le Carré is currently being installed.
• Environmental and urban design measures reduced physical vulnerabilities and increased the resilience of public spaces to threats.

• Early involvement of citizens is essential to build trust and ensure that technologies such as CCTV are accepted and effective.
• Youth programmes (such as the Caddy programme) are powerful tools for fostering long-term civic responsibility and understanding of police work.
• Citizens want to be involved, but need clear, accessible channels to contribute meaningfully.
• Political support from local authorities, such as mayors, is crucial for legitimacy and long-term impact.
• Bureaucratic procedures, especially in Mediterranean countries, can delay implementation – early planning and clear scheduling are key.
• Sustainability planning should begin early: relying solely on EU funding risks losing momentum once the project ends.
• The lack of formal impact reports leads to a loss of valuable knowledge; simple tools such as short surveys can help capture outcomes.
• The well-being of police officers is often overlooked but critical, as burnout and safety concerns affect retention and performance.

• As the project was funded by the European Commission, sustainability and scalability – particularly in terms of continued funding – could be a limitation.
• The impact and effectiveness of the project on residents’ actual and perceived security are not always easy to isolate, making it difficult to distinguish direct effects (such as CCTV reducing security threats) from indirect ones (such as dialogue strengthening community cohesion and thereby reducing feelings of insecurity).

The project has been funded for a second phase (PACTESUR2), which added a further city – Madrid – to its scope of intervention.