The number of cases that the police do not investigate has more than doubled in three years. This is confirmed by the police after reporting from the NOS. The deletion of cases is mainly due to a lack of capacity and the fact that cases are judged more sharply.
Last year, some 32,000 cases were terminated early because the police had too few people to handle them. The police did not deal with 26,000 other cases because they judged that they did not have enough prospects to investigate them.
In total, 62,293 cases were deleted. In 2018, about 25,700 cases were not investigated. In 2019, that number rose to around 36,000 cases.
According to the police, the fact that more cases are being deleted because they do not have a good chance of success is mainly due to a closer look at which cases are meaningful enough to invest time and effort in them. More and more reports are also being settled without the police, for example through referral to aid agencies or through mediation.
It is not new that there are more matters than personnel to handle them, says Hanneke Ekelmans of the corps leadership to the NOS. “But in addition, matters have become increasingly complex in recent years. They require more time and that is why you can handle fewer cases with the same number of people. We would of course prefer to see that differently, but it is the case.”
The fewer cases are handled, the more are resolved
In the east of the Netherlands, East Brabant and Rotterdam, most cases were canceled last year due to a lack of capacity. However, these units are better at solving cases. 29 percent of cases in the east of the Netherlands were resolved last year, compared to a quarter across the country.
According to the police, this shows that the better reports are assessed, the more effective investigative capacity can be deployed on the most important and most promising cases.
Cases related to cybercrime and scams were the most frequently brushed aside last year. There were also regular cases of abuse, such as bicycle theft, vandalism and shoplifting. There are sometimes large differences between regions.