Veerle Heeren under fire again after ‘lies’ about the P Committee investigation Sint Truiden

On Tuesday evening, the police council of the Sint-Truiden-Gingelom-Nieuwerkerken zone held an emergency session about the abuses at the local police force. The investigation started in response to leaked images of a man masturbating in a Truiense police cell. An investigation by Committee P showed that the inspector involved already had a lot on his mind. He also filmed a naked asylum seeker in the back seat of a combi and a criminal investigation is underway in parallel for, among other things, facts of racism, voyeurism, discrimination and police brutality. The inspector was fired from office this summer. A second person was also discredited as a result of the disciplinary investigation.

In addition to an investigation into the two individual files, Committee P also conducted a broader investigation into the functioning of the Sint-Truiden-Gingelom-Nieuwerkerken police zone. The question is whether it concerns isolated excesses or a broader blurring of standards and a lack of integrity within the force.

On Tuesday evening, the police council was convened to discuss the Committee P report, but during the meeting it turned out that Committee P only made thirteen recommendations. Several councilors then requested access to the full monitoring report of Committee P.

That was refused them by Veerle Heeren, who is chairman of the police council. She was joined in this by the chief of police. In the closed session, Heeren talked about ‘a prohibition’ by Committee P to share the document. Councilor Carl Nijssens (cd&v), a party colleague of Heeren, did not stop there and asked Committee P immediately after the police council for more explanation. On Wednesday afternoon Nijssen got an answer. The opposite is apparent from that e-mail, which the editors of Het Belang van Limburg were able to view in its entirety: Committee P just gave permission to share the report with the police council.