Report Misdaad Anoniem (MMA) received more than 3,000 tips about suspicious situations in Brabant last year. That is a lot less than in previous years. The explanation is simple: during the corona years, we were at home en masse and we saw more suspicious things happening in our living environment.
Nevertheless, Brabant scores above the national average with anonymous reports. Only in Limburg, followed by Drenthe and Groningen, are there relatively more people who call and email anonymously about situations or people they don’t trust. Utrecht was the least clicked.
Corona time
According to a spokesperson for MMA, the figures are again comparable to those before the corona period. “The monthly average has now returned to its old level. People often think before they report, they make decisions for themselves. It seems that they are now more quickly ruled by the issues of the day,” says MMA spokesman Marc Janssen.
In Brabant there are two police units that benefit from the reports. The Zeeland-West Brabant unit received 1820 anonymous tips last year. In the East Brabant unit, 1445 tips were examined. In both areas a decrease of more than twenty percent compared to 2021.
Helium trader
MMA reports that 191 suspects were traced in Zeeland-West-Brabant due to the tips last year. They were mainly about drugs, such as a hemp factory in Moerstraten with 15,000 plants, a shisha factory in Dongen, a load of helium in Breda and nitrous oxide tanks in Tilburg. A drug dealer in Ossendrecht could also be arrested and a network of eleven dealers in Waalwijk. More than 10,000 cannabis plants and 41 weapons could be seized in this unit.
Bicycle thieves
More suspects could be caught in East Brabant: 396. It varied there from bicycle thieves in Eindhoven, traders in counterfeit goods in Helmond and Someren-Eind, an assault in Schijndel and fireworks in a house in Den Bosch. Thanks to the tips, nurseries were discovered in Drunen, Oss and Uden. A total of 14,129 hemp plants were taken off the street and 39 weapons.
Many tips were also received about wanted people. People then called after seeing Opsporing Requested or Bureau Brabant. In East Brabant they received 192 tips. In Zeeland-West-Brabant 138, for example about fugitives.
Last year, the reporting center forwarded a total of 18,857 reports to the police and other authorities such as the FIOD of the tax authorities, the games of chance authority, the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee and NVWA.
The reporting center has been in existence for twenty years. Since its inception, more than 300,000 tips have been forwarded and 36,000 people have been arrested.