Fat bikes cause a lot of headaches for the municipality and the police. “They cause a lot of nuisance and are extremely dangerous,” said Mayor Eric van Oosterhout. “Nine times out of ten, traffic accidents in our municipality involve a fat bike.” A form of ‘annoying transport’, that’s how the mayor describes the trendy two-wheeler.
The fat bike was discussed during the discussion of the municipality’s new safety plan and the police annual plan. According to Van Oosterhout, a hundred fines have now been issued. “In the shopping area and around the market we regularly have boys, because they are often the ones, who have to be picked off their bikes.”
Douwe Scheper of the police agrees that fat bikers are regularly ticketed. On November 29 it became very colorful. According to him, the police handed out as many as 50 prints on that day. “The bicycles are quite easy to upgrade. We recently stopped someone who was going 37 kilometers per hour. Without a helmet and without a brake.” Enforcement and information are really an advantage, he says.
With regard to the latter, schools and bicycle shops should also be involved. Because sometimes things can go wrong. “A 14-year-old girl recently collided with a five-year-old girl at Wildlands. It’s a cool bike, but the consequences are often not fully understood.”
Other matters were also discussed during the discussion of the safety plan and police annual plan. For example, the nuisance caused by people with deviant or misunderstood behavior has increased, Van Oosterhout reports. “It gives us a lot of work.” People with a care background are increasingly being placed in average residential neighborhoods. “We are receiving more and more reports and we are having more and more difficulty placing these people in the right place.”
The lack of appropriate help and increasing waiting lists at healthcare institutions do not help, according to Van Oosterhout. Emmen, but also other municipalities, need more national policy in this regard. The ‘hiding’ of the healthcare chain in society, as he describes it, is really a major concern as far as he is concerned.
Another point of attention is the rising crime rate among young people. Emmen is not unique in this, this is a national trend, according to the municipality and police. In that respect, the mayor is happy with the Angelslo Academy in the Emmen district of the same name.
The Angelslo Academy is a place where neighborhood youth give a push in the right direction by focusing on talent development and support. “No repression, but taking young people along at the front and ensuring that they do not end up in crime.
The police will also set up a special subversion team. The reason is the increasing nuisance related to drug possession, drug trafficking and drug labs. Last year, 172 reports were made to the police between January and September. A worrying development, says Scheper. Setting up a team does mean extra pressure on existing police capacity. “Something really needs to be done,” said Scheper. “We really need to put up barriers.”