The chance that boas in Haarlemmermeer will get their batons back later this summer has increased slightly since today. Earlier, the minister decided that they should do without. But he did not take sufficient account of the increase in violent incidents involving boas in the municipality.
The Council of State passed that judgment this morning, after the municipality of Haarlemmermeer had appealed against the minister’s decision.
The municipal enforcers already had a baton in their pocket from 2012 to 2017. The minister had given permission for this. But when the municipality asked the minister in 2017 to extend that permission, she received no response. The minister made an exception for boas at Schiphol, but was not convinced that all boas in Haarlemmermeer should keep it.
Preventive
The church had that conviction. “That boas [in de periode 2012 tot en met 2017, red] had a baton, mainly worked preventively,” spokesperson Petra Faber explains to NH. “Because in the years that boas did not carry a baton, the number of incidents increased.”
While a few dozen incidents were registered between 2012 and 2017, in 2020 and 2021 that number had risen to ‘approximately 80 per year’. The counter is already rising considerably this year. “We are now halfway through 2023 and there have already been 39 incidents.”
The minister has not taken sufficient account of this increase, judges the Council of State. Moreover, he has insufficiently substantiated why boas who previously had a baton at their disposal would no longer need it later.
Violence monopoly
Chairman Richard Gerrits of boa trade union ACP is pleased with the ruling of the Council of State. Although Minister Yesilgöz of Justice and Security announced last summer that all 23,000 boas in the Netherlands should be able to get a batonaccording to Gerrits, applications are still regularly frustrated by the police or the Public Prosecution Service.
According to the chairman, they do this because they believe that the monopoly of violence lies with the police. “But municipalities themselves can best assess whether their boas need a baton.”