The National Police fears that citizens will increasingly violently attack police officers due to growing geopolitical tensions and escalating domestic political disputes.
This is what Corry van Breda, deputy police chief in the Zeeland-West Brabant unit and national portfolio holder for violence, says in an interview with NRC. Today the police present annual figures on violent incidents they encounter. Threats, assaults, insults, spitting, discrimination and sexual harassment of officers will “increase in absolute terms and in severity” by 2025.
In concrete terms, this means that an average of about 35 police officers are treated aggressively and violently every day
The police registered around 13,000 incidents of violence against officers last year, more than 2,000 more than in 2019. “That number is unacceptably high. In concrete terms, this means that an average of around 35 police officers are treated aggressively and violently every day. That is of course madness and unacceptable,” says Van Breda.
The most common incident concerns insults to police officers, more than 5,000 cases. “But you see a hardening and increasingly serious incidents with all the consequences that entails, such as serious trauma and serious physical injuries to officers. Nobody signs for this when you join the police.”
Ongoing climate demonstrations and the increasing number of violent protests in municipalities that want to open an asylum seeker center are worrying the police. Van Breda believes that things cannot continue like this. “We appeal to society. As the police, we can undoubtedly do things better, but the hardening in society and the growing dissatisfaction with the government is worrying.” There are limits to tolerance, she says: “Ultimately, we really have to maintain public order. And our colleagues are there time and time again.”
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Police are becoming overloaded
The police are becoming heavily overloaded by all the demonstrations, says Van Breda. “Those officers are not in the neighborhood, are not in a surveillance car and do not conduct criminal investigations.” According to her, the riots during discussions about asylum are becoming increasingly serious.
The climate demonstrations are also a source of concern. “Here the problem may not be so much the hardening, but rather the persistence. It is not just friendly singing and crafting people along the road who want to make their voices heard,” said the police boss. “It may not mean anything for our work, but it is quite frustrating that it is becoming an increasing struggle to ensure that demonstrators comply with what has been agreed on where they can stand, for example. Ultimately, we as police officers have to get to work. This puts a strain on normal work. We are increasingly unable to remain the connecting police that we want to be in the Netherlands.”
The figures released today show that throwing fireworks at police officers has increased significantly in recent years. In 2019, 94 reports were issued for this offence, often during football matches. Last year this was 307 times.
These are self-made bombs using flash powder from Cobras. That’s how you scare people out of their shoes
Around the turn of the year there were 344 violent incidents, a doubling compared to a year earlier. The police suspect that the increase in fireworks incidents is related to parliamentary decision-making on a general fireworks ban. “We hope that the Safe New Year’s Eve Act will come into force this year. We are not talking about firecrackers, but about heavy explosives. These are self-made bombs that use flash powder from Cobras. This will blow people out of their shoes. This goes from bad to worse.”
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More severe punishment
The Public Prosecution Service wants to take a stricter approach to violence against police officers and other people with a public task. The starting point is a 200 percent higher penalty than for other violent incidents, as a signal that this type of criminal behavior will not be tolerated.
Van Breda: “It is important to punish more severely than for ‘normal’ violent incidents. We are constantly in discussions about this with the Public Prosecution Service and judges, because it does not go well in all cases. Colleagues are sometimes quite disappointed about that, I can be honest about that. It could be a bit stricter. Let’s do what we agreed. Perhaps 200 percent is not always possible, but a significantly higher sentence for violent perpetrators seems good to me.”
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