Last New Year’s Eve, the police turned out 20 percent less often than on average in the past four years. Nevertheless, the number of arrests this year was almost 9 percent higher than in previous years. Which reports the national police force Friday. According to the police, the decrease in the number of incidents – almost 15,000 in total – may be due to the rainy weather at the beginning of the evening.
The police distinguish between regular deployment that night and incidents and arrests that are typical for New Year’s. This includes, for example, fireworks problems, vandalism and nuisance. The police turned out almost 28 percent less often for these types of New Year’s incidents than on average over the past four years. The number of arrests due to these types of incidents decreased by 18.7 percent to 248.
About the same number of police officers as in previous years had to deal with violence. For example, 155 police officers were pelted with fireworks, resulting in injuries and hearing damage. According to the police, the turn of the year was “similar to that of 2019” across the board, the year before the corona crisis.
No room to maintain
Since 2020, there has been a national ban on lighting firecrackers and flares, among other things. Twelve municipalities introduced a complete ban on fireworks this New Year, including Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Haarlem and Nijmegen.
The number of arrests due to fireworks nuisance decreased, despite the fact that fireworks restrictions were largely ignored. According to a police spokesman, this is because “it was so busy that night that the ban could often not be enforced.” The spokesperson says that this has little to do with the acute staff shortages in the police force. “There is never really room for enforcing fireworks nuisance.”
The number of accidents caused by setting off fireworks has returned to the same level as before corona. According to Martijntje Bakker, the director of VeiligNL, a foundation that is committed to limiting injuries, the local fireworks measures have had no effect. “That is also because in some of those municipalities you were not allowed to light the fireworks, but you could buy them. And it has not been maintained. Partial measures do not lead to fewer victims.”