The National Municipal Security System is a support program to advise municipalities throughout Chile. Its purpose is to strengthen municipal management capacities to contribute to preventing crime and violence, thus improving the living conditions of inhabitants in the country’s municipalities.
The National Municipal Security System has been created because of the need to establish minimum standards for prevention in municipalities.
This is due to the Government’s decision to end competition for obtaining security resources.
The previous system did not allow resources to be distributed where they were most needed.
Keep reading to find out more about the new regulations that aim to regulate the allocation of resources in the Crime Prevention Undersecretary’s Office’s National Municipal Security System Program.
How does the National Municipal Security System work?
The National Municipal Security System works via three components:
Universal technical assistance for all of Chile’s municipalities
Universal technical assistance for all of Chile’s municipalities includes advice on:
- Public security regulations and concepts, local public security policy principles
- Diagnostics: identification of citizen security problems
- Solution plan design: generate design, implementation process and monitoring
- Internal and external management: mainstreaming of the crime prevention approach
- Emerging issues: applied innovation capacity in crime prevention
Financing of municipal projects for crime prevention
The program establishes a resource distribution mechanism called the “Más Equidad Más Seguridad” (More Equity, More Security) index.
Financing for innovation projects
The program will contain innovation projects that include evaluation activities. This implies an increase in knowledge for the institution executing the project, and improvements in the design of public safety policies at the local level.
For the purpose of financing crime prevention projects, the “Más Equidad Más Seguridad” index will be used to establish the order of priority among municipalities.
What is the “Más Seguridad Más Equidad” index?
The “Más Seguridad Más Equidad” index is a data structure that orders, prioritizes and categorizes the country’s municipalities based on their vulnerability to crime.
The following variables are taken into account to determine the “Más Seguridad Más Equidad” index:
- Crime by severity
- Socio-economic
- Index of crimes against women
- Offenders of the children and adolescents law
- Municipal and floating population
- Municipal income
The “Más Seguridad Más Equidad” index will be updated every two years, providing updated data for about 77% of the variables that comprise it.
The only variables that will not be updated are those related to the Census, which will be updated in the following Census process.
Advantages offered by the measurement index
The “Más Seguridad Más Equidad” index allows municipal resources to be distributed based on a public and transparent formula, which is fundamental in a modern and democratic society.
The index is also formalized in an ordinance that can be consulted publicly.
The index is now a state instrument. It is therefore not only a tool for the Crime Prevention Undersecretary’s Office, but can be used by any body for public policy purposes.
How will the resources be distributed?
The “Más Seguridad Más Equidad” index processes and weighs the variables, establishing a score for each municipality.
A ranking will thus be established for all of the country’s municipalities, organized into two general groups:
- Urgent municipalities
- Rotating municipalities
Urgent municipalities
Urgent municipalities will use the same index and scoring, and be classified in a decreasing order of priority.
Three groups of 40 municipalities will be created.
The municipalities classified as urgent will receive financing every year, according to the budget availability of the respective year. The amount will vary depending on the group in which the municipality is classified, and will decrease between groups.
However, the number of resources for project financing will be the same for all municipalities that are part of the same group.
Rotating municipalities
The rotating municipalities will be divided into a first and second group of 113 and 112 municipalities, respectively.
The municipalities that make up each of these groups will receive financing in the first and second year.
The amount of financing for projects will be the same for all municipalities that are part of the same group, according to the budget availability of the respective year.
The classification and the amount of financing for projects by group will be sanctioned by a Crime Prevention Undersecretary’s Office resolution, which will be published on the office’s website.