Glasgow City Council is set to research street lighting’s impact on criminal activity, after receiving a £24 million technology grant.
The city beat 30 other UK cities to claim a £24 million prize as a result of Glasgow’s proposals to increase energy efficiency, which impressed judges of the Future Cities Demonstrator competition.
As winner of the competition, which is managed and funded by the government’s Technology Strategy Board, Glasgow is running a city-wide project, known as the demonstrator, to show how technology can improve its citizens’ lives.
The local authority has said it will use some of grant to understand the impact of dimmed street lighting on crime, face recognition, the perception of crime, actual community safety, physical activity and travel within the city. Glasgow Community and Safety Services will be assessing the impact of dimmed or part-night street lighting levels on crime rate, face recognition and social activity within the city such as walking, cycling and running.
The council said dynamic control of lighting could be tested as a response mechanism to changes in activity within an area, where streetlights are being dimmed. This involves video analytics software, controlled via the city’s Glasgow Integrated Operations Centre. Perception of crime research would be undertaken by a technology-based survey before and during the demonstrator project.
Parties involved in research for this project include Serco. Phil Mabey, senior project manager, Serco said: “The aim of effective street lighting should be to deliver ‘lighting at the right time, at the right place and at the right amount’ but critically must also consider the softer, more subjective, environmental and behavioural aspects of the impact that reduced street lighting could have within communities.”
Glasgow is planning to compare its findings with street-lighting research carried out by other UK councils.
As part of its plans to integrate street lighting with CCTV systems, the council is considering putting sensors on CCTV cameras to detect and raise the alarm when a street light is faulty.
The majority of the city’s technology grant will be spent on:
The Glasgow Integrated Operations Centre – a management hub for city operations which includes traffic management, public safety CCTV and emergency response.
Projects that assess integration of systems across the city.
A smartphone app to boost citizens’ interaction with city data through physical and virtual environments.
Led by the council in partnership with public, private and academic organisations including the University of Strathclyde, the city’s procurement and implementation phase of the demonstrator project will run for 18 months. The results from the project will be made available to UK businesses to help inform their development of integrated, urban technologies.
Councillor Gordon Matheson, leader of council, said: “Winning this money will put us years ahead of other UK cities in terms of integrating our technological systems to make them work for and talk to each other.”
