Additional supervision will be placed at ten different locations in the municipality of Breda. Four additional boas are deployed. The places where extra supervision will be placed have been chosen based on the neighborhood survey, reports of nuisance and incidents. “We want this extra effort to improve the residents’ sense of safety,” says Councilor Eddie Förster of Safety.
The extra efforts of the enforcers are necessary to improve the ‘feeling of safety’, says the councilor. One of those ten so-called ‘hotspots’ is the Willemsstraat and the Valkenbergpark in Breda. There is drug nuisance, homeless people and street intimidation. For example, last year a father and son were abused in the park by a group of young people, and robberies also take place.
That feeling of safety seems to vary considerably among passers-by in the Valkenberg Park. “Yes, there are some crazy people walking around and sometimes a boy sits on a bench here smoking a joint,” says a walker. He thinks extra supervision ‘can help’. “I am doing an internship and come here often. There are a lot of addicted homeless people hanging around here and it is nice that something is being done about it,” says a student.
“Often being visibly present and speaking is enough.”
Still, four extra enforcers on the eighty that the municipality already has does not sound like a lot of extra effort. Tocht, Enforcement team manager Robert Segers thinks they can make a difference. “This ‘flex team’ will only be deployed at these ten hotspots, in addition to the regular deployment of the boas we already have. This involves a team of four full-time enforcers for five days a week.”
According to Segers, visibility will play an important role in tackling various problems. “Here we will go after dealers more often and address people who intimidate people, but also impose sanctions. Often, being visibly present and speaking is enough.”
In any case, visitors to the Valkenberg Park seem to appreciate it. “I sometimes see an addict, but I don’t really know to what extent they cause a nuisance. Safety is especially important in a meeting place such as a park,” says a passerby. A young person says that there is often a smell of cannabis in the park.
“There is simply money for it, and it will remain so.”
The extra supervision is not temporary, but in principle ‘infinite’, says councilor Förster. “There is just money for that, that remains.” The ten ‘hotspots’ now chosen are not fixed, but are ‘dynamic’. Förster: “Neighborhoods or places where it has become safer can be removed from the top ten, other neighborhoods or villages where there is nuisance can be included.”
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