Monica Diniz – Head of Prevention, Security and International Relations of the Lisbon Municipal Police, Lisbon Municipality.
Mónica Diniz is a sociologist (FCSH-Universidade Nova de Lisboa), master on sociology and planning (ISCTE-IUL) with research on policing practices and citizenship at the local level, that has been developing her work in the area of police-citizens cooperation, namely on the implementation of bottom-up collective approaches for crime-prevention and delivery of community policing projects. With professional background on international cooperation (Portuguese National Commission for UNESCO) and on youth risk behaviours and drug use prevention programs (Lisbon Municipality), works since 2008 in the Lisbon Municipal Police, with main responsibilities on police-community relationship and multi-agency cooperation, with a main focus on crime prevention, police-community safety partnerships and community capacity building on security and safety issues.
Over her career has been participating in several international cooperation projects on urban security, namely in the area of Criminal Prevention and Urban Planning (COST ACTION TU1203-Crime Prevention through Urban Design and Planning), on the intercultural mediation approach to urban security (project TIME – Train Intercultural Mediators for a Multicultural Europe – Erasmus +) and on community policing (project Cutting Crime Impact, Horizon 2020; project on technical-police cooperation for community policing training of the Municipal Guard of Praia City in Cape Verd, UCCLA and Camões Institute; and project IMPPULSE – Improving Police-Population understanding for local security, Erasmus +). Has been working also in the methodological transferability of the community policing model developed in Lisbon, both in national and international contexts, namely in cooperation with the Council of Europe. She is currently working in IcARUS project “Innovative Approaches to Urban Security” (Horizon 2020), in the field of prevention of juvenile delinquency.
Trainer on community policing model, targeting both police officers and civil society and on intercultural approach to urban safety. Author and co-author of several publications on Community Policing.