Residents of The Hague, municipality and police work together against digital crime in the neighborhood

Today, Mayor Jan van Zanen and alderman Saskia Bruines on behalf of the municipality of The Hague, and Paul van Musscher on behalf of the Police Unit The Hague, signed the covenant Digital Security in the District. This describes the cooperation that the municipality, the police and residents enter into to tackle digital crime in the neighbourhood. It is important to be resilient to this, especially now that this form of crime is increasing.

To make residents and entrepreneurs resilient against online crime, the municipality of The Hague, The Hague Police Unit and residents are working together in the 'Digital Safe in the Neighborhood' project. Residents volunteer as digital ambassadors. They give neighbors tips on how they can better protect themselves online against, for example, bank help desk fraud and 'friend-in-emergency fraud'. “This way, more people become aware of the risks and they know better what to do about it,” says alderman Saskia Bruines. Mayor Jan van Zanen continues: “The best way to tackle digitized crime is to prevent it from happening.” Police chief Paul van Musscher states: "The deployment of digital ambassadors can certainly help raise awareness of the risks of this form of crime and how to tackle it".

Digital security training for ambassadors

Residents and entrepreneurs volunteer to make their neighborhood more digitally resilient as a Digital Ambassador. They do not have to be cyber experts, but they do receive training in digital security so they can inform the neighborhood well prepared. For example, professionals from the Police Unit The Hague, Digital Trust Center, Platform for the Information Society, Fraud Helpdesk and Veiligbankieren.nl are called in. With this knowledge, the ambassadors take actions to inform their neighbourhood. For example, distributing tips via flyers, setting up information for local residents or placing an article in the local newspaper.

The Digital Security in the Neighborhood project started in November 2020 in Wateringseveld, Morgenweide and Loosduinen. Expansion is taking place in Vruchtenbuurt, Bloemenbuurt, Bezuidenhout and Mariahoeve. This way, more and more neighborhoods are working on their digital resilience. There will be new training courses for the ambassadors in July. On July 7th, alderman Saskia Bruines and Arjen van Giersbergen, team leader of the cybercrime team of the Police Unit in The Hague, will also sit down to discuss the important work of the ambassadors.

Do you also want to contribute to the digital resilience of your neighbourhood, or do you want to know more about the project? Sign up via digitaalambassadeur@denhaag.nl   

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