Police director steps down over hidden report

Marijke Stroucken is stepping down as human resources director at the National Police after she hid a damning report about problems at the police call center from her superiors, AD reports.

The report showed that callers to the non-emergency police line - 0900-8844 - sometimes had to wait 20 minutes for their call to be answered. This is due to understaffing caused by sickness. About 1,000 police officers work at the REgional Service Centers. Police Chief Erik Akerboom was furious that Stroucken did not pass this report on to her superiors even though she knew about it for some time. Akerboom found out about the problems reading about it in AD.

A police press statement reads that Stroucken is stepping down as of January 1st, 2017. In her own words Stroucken states that se does not want to be the "standard bearer in the area of employment conditions and legal status issues". According to her, "neither my hear nor my strength" is in that field. "Then it is wise to transfer the function."