Fifteen cops busted for leaking information to criminals

At least 15 police officers were caught leaking information to criminals between 2012 and 2014. Ten of them were dismissed. The other five were given a conditional discharge due to extenuating circumstances, RTL Nieuws reports based on information on punished integrity violations for 2012, 2013 and 2014 retrieved from the police.

According to the broadcaster, these incidents included an officer tipping cannabis cultivators off about an imminent police raid, a policeman who was engaged to a drug trafficker and an officer who popped up during an assassination investigation.

As the information spans only from 2012 to 2014, it does not include the corrupt police officers found out this year, the biggest of which is Mark M. who leaked confidential information from "dozens" of investigations to criminals. Another officer, 52 year old Ton D. from the Oost-Nederland department, is also being investigated for possible information leaks, but on a much larger scale. And a 45 year old officer in Eindhoven was arrested in October on suspicion of breaking his professional secrecy by leaking official information.

In a written response to the RTL report, the police stated that unlike in the case surrounding Mark M., these 15 cases of leaked information does not involve the "structural and widespread compromise of the police systems" and the leaks were not always intentional. The police also state that every effort is put into preventing these kinds of mistakes. "Violations are severely punished."