A research project flips the script on AI surveillance, using it as a tool for community co-creation and belonging instead of repression and control, in the Lombardijen neighbourhood.
What does it mean to feel safe in your own neighbourhood? For years, the answer from policymakers has often been the same: more police, more cameras, more control. But what if technology could be used not to watch a community, but to listen to it? What if Artificial Intelligence (AI), often feared as a tool of control, could actually help neighbourhoods imagine a future built on care and belonging?
These questions are at the heart of the “AI for Positive Safety” use case, part of the larger AI MAPS project at Erasmus University Rotterdam. AI MAPS explores how AI can be applied responsibly across society. It is an ELSA lab where researchers investigate the Ethical, Legal, and Societal Aspects of AI in real-world contexts, including three use cases. In public safety, this means asking if AI can help communities feel safer not by controlling them, but by amplifying trust, care, and well-being?
From surveillance to “positive safety”
Most AI in public safety focuses on predictive policing, risk detection, or surveillance. Majsa Storbeck, PhD candidate at Erasmus University, wanted to try something different: “Instead of defining safety only as the absence of crime, we asked, what if AI could highlight trust, care, and well-being in a neighbourhood?”
Her use case took place in Lombardijen, a neighbourhood in Rotterdam-South often characterized by challenges like high crime rates and persistent stigma. From the very start, residents were not just subjects; they were co-creators.
A bottom-up experiment in Lombardijen
“In our community workshops,” Majsa explains, “we used AI to visualize what a ‘safe and positive’ future neighbourhood might look like. Although generative AI has its issues, in this context it gave residents a way to share their ideas beyond the need for ‘fancy’ or formal Dutch that might resonate with municipal officials.”
The results were striking. Residents consistently highlighted features like vegetable gardens, trees, and green spaces not just for aesthetics, but as spaces that actively contributed to their feelings of safety and care. These ideas were directly tied to agency, pride, and belonging.
“What really stood out,” Majsa continues, “was how strongly people connected positive safety with something as simple as a community garden. It became a hub for care and connection - neighbours checking in on each other, informal support networks forming. It was clear that safety wasn’t just about absence of crime; it was about everyday life and community.”The municipality shared this perspective, they saw the garden as a place that encouraged residents to engage with one another and take responsibility for their shared spaces. Ecologists even noted the biodiversity benefits of community gardens compared to standard parks. “We had a win-win-win,” Majsa says: “residents felt empowered; municipalities saw more engaged citizens; and nature benefited too.”
Sharing the vision
To celebrate and communicate the residents’ ideas, the team organized a photo exhibition at a local community hub. “Seeing the residents’ reactions was incredible,” Majsa recalls. “They were visibly proud of what they had created. Even more importantly, the exhibition seemed to crystallize their pride in the neighbourhood. It brought together all the elements that made the place ‘theirs,’ showing how individual and collective perspectives can shape a shared vision for a safer, more connected community.”
Positive safety in practice
This use case illustrates how AI can act as a tool to elevate community voices. By connecting local perspectives with policy and giving residents a way to express their visions, the project demonstrates a practical path to positive safety.
Policy change takes time, but signs are promising. In Rotterdam, initiatives to reduce litter and expand green spaces are now being discussed, echoing the residents’ calls for “green and clean” neighbourhoods. The challenge is to ensure such efforts benefit communities like Lombardijen without triggering “green gentrification.”
For Majsa and the AI MAPS team, the lesson is clear: AI doesn’t only have to serve surveillance. Used responsibly, it can strengthen communities, amplify voices, and reimagine what safety means in everyday life.
Sometimes, safety looks less like a patrol car and more like neighbours tending a garden together.
- Related content
- Related links
- Overview blogposts | AI Maps
