The report shows that the number of crimes related to undermining has fallen in recent years. Since 2021, fraud cases have been taken from 189 to 153 in 2024. And cyber crime has also been reduced considerably, from 52 to 9 cases. With the latter, it is expected that this is because people are not quickly willing to report online crime.
Last year, all Drenthe municipalities and the province bundled the forces in the Drenthe Approach Ondermining (DAO). A plan has been drawn up on the basis of 28 spearheads to prevent undermining crime. The report of the Court of Audit investigated how the municipality of Midden-Drenthe gives substance to DAO so that the municipal approach has a positive effect.
The study tested six characteristics of the municipality of Midden-Drenthe: information provision, awareness, policy and enforcement, safe working environment, communication and preconditions. And the municipality falls short on all those points.
Discussions with the city council show that undermining is mainly seen as something of the police or the Public Prosecution Service (OM), while the investigation concludes that the municipality has an important role in signaling and investigation. Although undermining is now a fixed part on the agenda, no concrete plans have yet been formulated about the approach to undermining and the consciousness within the municipality according to the research is below par.
In addition, no internal periodic consultation has been set up in the municipality in which signals about undermining are discussed and there is relatively little insight into what is happening in the outlying areas. That while LTO Noord recently indicated that more and more drug criminals are contacting farmers in Drenthe.
Various policy documents talk about a plan of action undermining, but that has not yet yielded anything and is still developing. Tackling undermining is for the most part not concrete in policy.
Moreover, there is a large course within the municipality in terms of civil servants who focus on undermining. “If you have twelve employees in public order and safety in three years, there will be no collaboration,” is a quote of an interviewee in the study.
Directors and officials themselves can also be victims of undermining. More than a quarter of the officials would have had to deal with threat or intimidation while performing their work for the municipality, according to research by RIEC Northern Netherlands in 2022. But those people do not know where they can report that internally.
In addition, temporary employees only have to sign an integrity statement and a declaration of behavior (VOG) is not necessary. For new employees who come to work on public order and safety and undermining, for example, it is not extra screened upon employment.
The municipality of Midden-Drenthe does not have its own communication strategy for undermining, but in particular uses national or regional campaigns.
Finally, the report concludes that the municipality has too little manpower to meet the goals set in the DAO. Undermining is part of the duties of three permanent employees of public order and safety. The municipality spends around twenty cents per inhabitant on the tackling of undermining, while this is almost ten euros at a municipality like Hoogeveen.
The Midden-Drenthe Court of Audit advises the college to go an open dialogue with the city council about the severity and dangers of undermining. Based on that outcome, implementation plans must become more concrete and recommend appointing a coordinator that focuses entirely on the tackling of undermining.
The cooperation with other municipalities must be sought more and consultation about undermining must be on the agenda more structurally to stimulate the approach.