During the Eleventh of the Eleventh, a new approach will be experimented in Den Bosch for underage young people who misbehave, have alcohol with them or walk outside drunk. Police and enforcement officers no longer take them home or to the police station, but directly to the city office, where a special Halt counter has been set up.
The counter is part of a pilot project in which Halt collaborates with the municipality of Den Bosch. “This already exists in other municipalities, but here we are doing it for the first time,” says Ellen van Kemenade of the Halt Foundation. “Young people who are drunk in public, exhibit rowdy behavior or cause destruction, come to us immediately. We talk to them while their parents listen on the loudspeaker.”
“We want parents to know immediately what is going on.”
Previously, young people were only referred to Halt later, after their data had been transferred. We were then introduced on the telephone and an appointment was scheduled. Now the conversation immediately follows: “We want parents to know immediately what is going on. Moreover, we immediately see the young person in the situation as it is now. This makes the confrontation more effective both on the day itself and later,” adds colleague Lucien van Druten.
Van Kemenade gives an example of a boy who had drunk too much. “I couldn’t actually talk to him, but I did have his father on the phone, and that way I know he is also informed.” The same boy comes for an interview with her next week. “The advantage is that I have already seen how he was doing here and I can point that out to him.”
“We would rather not have been busy.”
The Halt employees do not want to give figures on Tuesday, but ‘it is busy today’, they admit. According to them, the Eleventh of the Eleventh is a good time to carry out this test. “We would rather not have been busy and not seen any misconduct. We know that it happens anyway, so it is better that we are there. If young people make a mistake, we can immediately catch them and confront them with why they are here,” says Van Kemenade.
A police spokesperson said he is pleased with the pilot: “We estimate that, through these short lines of communication, we as a government can implement a kind of tit-for-tat policy that is more effective than calling the young people to account at a later time. Officers themselves decide which underage young people are eligible for this; if, for example, they are unreasonable due to excessive drinking, we will choose the traditional approach and the young people will come into contact with Halt later.”