Report: Police reorganization €230 million over budget

The reorganization of the National Police is 230 million euros over budget, bringing the total costs up to nearly half a billion euros. This is according to the revised organization plan that Minister Ard van der Steur of Security and Justice will send to the Tweede Kamer, lower house of parliament, on Monday, sources told Dutch newspaper AD. The police's central works council is concerned that this will result to a decrease in the number of police officers and the police no longer being able to perform their tasks. "If the minister decides it should come out of the police budget, it will have consequences. We will then have to make decisions about what tasks we can and can not do and whether the operational strength can be maintained", Frank Giltay, chairman of the council, said to the AD. He hasn't seen the plan yet. Minister Van der Steur will present the plan to the Tweede Kamer on Monday. It also contains clarification on how mayors and regional police forces can determine which forms of crime prevention need priority locally.