Special Assistance Team gives PZ VLAS more clout in high-risk interventions

“We are located near the border with France and must arm ourselves against criminals who cross the border,” says Ruth Vandenberghe, mayor of Kortrijk. “This mix means that our police zone is sometimes confronted with assignments that can no longer be seen as regular police work, but as ‘special assistance’.”

“They know the area”

Beforehand, the police zone was dependent on a team of the federal police to carry out such interventions. Kortrijk now has its own team of twelve inspectors. “They not only know the work area better, but also know how the local police zone works,” says the mayor.

Yet it is not a new phenomenon. Even before the unification of the police services in 2001, the Kortrijk municipal police already had such an ‘IKOR’ assistance team. At the start of the VLAS police zone, the assistance team ‘TARES’ was set up.

After ‘TARES’ came first the ‘RESPONS team’ then ‘GINT’ team’ (Specialized Intervention). In recent years, however, the need and intention arose at VLAS to transform and upgrade the ‘GINT team’ into a fully-fledged special assistance team TARES. And that in accordance with the legal framework of circular letter GPI 81.

Risk work

In situations with a special degree of risk, the leaders of the local police can decide to have the intervention carried out through regular intervention, through the deployment of a local special assistance team or to call in the help of the federal police.

“It is also important for smaller municipalities to have such a Special Assistance Team. Think of incidents such as settlements in the drug environment, ramifications of criminal networks, intra-family violence…”, says Francis Benoit, mayor of Kuurne.