Safe Alternative/Top 600

Municipality of Amsterdam

To make the city safer, the municipality, together with its social partners, coordinates various approaches at the intersection of safety, care and the social domain from the Action Centre for Safety and Care (AcVZ).

Last change on 26th of November 2024, at 16:37 (CET) | Publication Standard 1.0

• Publication category: Impactful algorithms
• Impact assessment: Field not filled in.
• Status: In use

General information

Theme

Public Order and Safety

Begin date

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Contact information

[e-mail]

Responsible use

Goal and impact

To make the city safer, the municipality, together with its social partners, coordinates various approaches at the intersection of safety, care and the social domain from the Action Centre for Safety and Care (AcVZ). The hallmarks of these approaches are customisation within a person-centred approach. Top 600 and Safe Alternative are two programmes aimed at reducing the number of high-impact crimes, also known as High Impact Crime or HIC (robberies, street robberies, burglaries, serious violence, murder/killing) and drug trafficking-related drug and violent crimes. This is done using an integrated person-centred approach (tailor-made approach) targeting people who are repeatedly suspected and convicted of such offences. The approach is aimed at stopping crime, improving the opportunities and quality of life of these persons, preventing the negative influence of these persons on their minor siblings, if any, and their minor children, and protecting the victims and the environment of these persons from anything that arises from criminal behaviour. The difference between the Top 600 and the Top 400 is that the Safe Alternative focuses on the group aged 12 to 23 years old, who are even less advanced criminally (e.g. fewer convictions) but with clear signs of concern(s). The Top 600 focuses on individuals with a solid criminal (HIC) background, and who are not (or no longer) on the Safe Alternative list. The Top 600 and Safe Alternative are two programmes of the Action Centre for Safety and Care (AcVZ), where a network of (government) parties jointly tackle social problems in the field of safety and care. Which problems these are is jointly determined by the organisations that make up the AcVZ, under the direction of the City of Amsterdam.

Considerations

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Human intervention

The compilation of the lists is done by a team of analysts at the AcVZ. They carry out various checks to ensure the integrity of the data. After selection, a file is compiled manually for each person, once again clearly recording the information on the basis of which the selection was made. After placement on the list, a specially trained director is given control of the person (and file), once again clearly stating why the person is on the list. At each of these steps, there is explicitly the possibility of reversing the selection if the analyst, dossier compiler, or director sees reason to do so.

Risk management

The methodology of selecting individuals for the Top 600 or Top 400 approach has low risks. These consist mainly of being wrongly included in the approach, and being wrongly excluded from the approach.

Operations

Data

Individuals can only enter the Top 600 and Safe Alternative if they meet the criteria of these approaches. Exactly what these criteria are are determined by the joint partners of the Action Centre for Safety and Care (AcVZ) and are described in the AcVZ covenant and the data processing arrangements under it that belong to these approaches. The criteria are available on the AcVZ website, as are the covenants, arrangements and who the partners are.

Generally, there are 'intake moments' twice a year for both approaches. Persons who meet the criteria flow in, those who no longer meet them flow out.

Data from:

Police criteria:

If suspects are arrested for a High Impact Crime (arrested at least once within five years) or if suspects are arrested for a misdemeanour (arrested at least twice within two years)

Care criteria:

Contains at least three of the following criteria:

*has a judicial order on the reference date;

*has a civil measure on the reference date;

*compulsory school report or absentee or absolute absentee or early school leaver or more than 3x school changes in *basic school age or more than 2x school changes in secondary (special) education;

*involved in domestic violence incident;

*Apprehended as a suspect between the ages of 12 and 14;

*Apprehended for APV (General Administrative Order) offence dealing in fake dope;

*been part of a prioritised youth group on the reference date.

The data lists are supplied by various parties and, based on the criteria, a list of persons eligible for the approach is produced.

For the top 600 criteria, see "Technical operation" point 2.

Technical design

1. Each incoming dataset has already been filtered by the supplying party for the relevant part of the criteria. For example, the police only supply the names of persons who currently meet the police part of the criteria (number of arrests, of a certain type, in the past 2 or 5 years). All incoming data is then checked by analysts for accuracy, to make sure that the persons in one dataset are the same as in the other dataset(s). The datasets are then juxtaposed to reveal which individuals meet each part of the criteria. Once this has been done with all relevant parts of the criteria, those persons who currently meet the criteria remain. The selection of persons in the Safe Alternative and Top600 therefore consists only of adding up a certain criterion (e.g. arrests, or compulsory education records) in a certain period (usually 2 or 5 years), and then juxtaposing those results to see which persons meet each component of the criteria. END OF TECHNICAL OPERATION.

2. CONTINUED "Data"

Top 600 criteria:

For the Top 600 for the HIC category, the following criteria come into play:

Police criteria:

• Variant 1:
• Arrested on HIC (three times or more within five years); and
• Been suspected of HIC (once or more within two years); and
• remanded to Prosecutor or Probation Service regarding HIC (once or more often within five years).
• Variant 2:
• Arrested regarding HIC (once or more often within five years); and
• Been suspected of HIC (once or more within two years); and
• arraigned to Prosecutor/RC regarding HIC (once or more often within five years); and
• Been a suspect in an incident (33 times or more within five years).

OM criteria:

• Frequent offenders: (≥21 yrs) conviction with sentence of which ≥1x was HIC (three times or more within five years);
• First offender juveniles: (<21 yrs) conviction with sentencing for HIC (1 time or more within 5 years).

For drug and violent offences, the following criteria are used:

Police criteria:

• Age < 30 years;
• Arrested for trafficking in hard drugs (1 time or more within 5 years);
• Arrested for violent crime, threat or possession of weapons (1 time or more within 5 years).

OM criteria:

• Conviction with sentencing for a crime (2 times or more often within 5 years), of which:
• Punishment for art. 2 Opium Act (1 time or more often within 3 years), or:
• Imprisonment for art. in Weapons and Ammunition Act (1 time or more often within 3 years), or:
• Prison sentence for serious violent crime (1 time or more often within 3 years).

Once included in the Top 600, a person flows out again if he or she no longer meets the criteria. A person cannot flow out if he or she has been in detention for more than 180 days in the past two years. Once admitted to Safe Alternative, a person remains in the approach for at least two years. After that, a person flows out provided he or she has not been detained more than once in the previous year. A person cannot flow out if he or she has been in detention for more than 100 days in the previous two years.

Data from:

Municipalities (Amsterdam, Amstelveen, Aalsmeer, Diemen, Ouder-Amstel, Uithoorn)

• Information on compulsory education;
• Information on youth groups;
• Place of residence (actual residence);
• Age.

Police

• Arrests, APV violations and suspects in investigation(s)

Public Prosecutor's Office

• Convictions

Probation Service

• Ongoing judicial measures

Youth care (JBRA and William Schrikker Foundation)

• Ongoing judicial and civil measures

No rights can be derived from the criteria described in this register.For the exact criteria and legal bases on the basis of which persons are included in one of the AcVZ approaches, please refer to the AcVZ General Covenant and the data processing regulations under it (including regulations for the Top 600 and Safe Alternative), as published on theAcVZ website.