Over 9,000 incidents of violence against Dutch cops last year

Last year police officers in the Netherlands faced 9,101 incidents of verbal or physical violence directed at them. That means that every day last year 25 police officers were insulted, threatened or physically abused while working, NOS reports.

Violence against police officers was most common during arrests (2,779) and while dealing with the nightlife crowds (993). There were also 523 incidents of violence against police officers while confronting a disturbed person, 523 incidents during situations in traffic, 451 incidents while giving fines on the street, and 451 incidents while dealing with domestic violence cases. 

In 147 cases the involved police officer filed charges of attempted murder or attempted manslaughters.

The police leadership always encourage officers to file charges when faced with violence, but the officer decide for themselves. A police spokesperson could not tell NOS how often police officers file charges and how often the Public Prosecutor proceeds with prosecution.

"The perpetrators are not just young people in difficult neighborhoods as you might expect", Ruud Verkuijlen of the National Police said to NOS. "It is also the hard worker who gets a ticket on his way to work and disagrees with it vehemently." 

According to Verkuijlen, experiencing violence has a major impact on a police officer's wellbeing. "For that reason, they are optimally supported from the moment they come into contact with this. We try to ensure that these officers can return to working with pleasure as quickly as possible."

It is difficult to compare these figures with previous years, because until last year each corps counted and registered such incidents in its own way, according to the broadcaster. If all these separately counted incidents are added together, you get 14,660 violent incidents against cops in 2016.