Last year, the police used violence more often to solve situations. In 2022, violence was used 33,584 times during more than 20,000 incidents, which is an increase of 12 percent compared to the previous year. According to the corps leadership, one of the explanations for the increase in violence is the increased division in society. That will be revealed on Wednesday an investigation published by the police themselves.
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“Citizens and government have become increasingly opposed to each other,” the police said in the report. There is talk of a society that is ‘further polarizing’. In addition, there is an increase in the number of protests, which in turn leads to more violence by the police. Another cause cited is the increase in incidents involving confused individuals; compared to 2021, this is an increase of almost 7 percent.
“What worries me is the violence that we are forced to use against vulnerable people,” said police chief Frank Paauw. “Caring for them is usually not a police task, since many people with confused behavior who come into contact with the police are not or hardly a nuisance, criminal or dangerous.”
In more than half of the more than 30,000 incidents, officers used physical force instead of weapons. In more than 2,100 cases, the police had to use a firearm. The electroshock weapon was used 4,414 times last year, in more than three quarters of the cases by only threatening with it. Of the more than 2,452 violence registrations, 13 percent concluded that an agent acted ‘non-professionally’. “We often make good estimates in a fraction of a second, but unfortunately it sometimes does not work out well,” says Paauw.