Police setting up their own organized crime task force

The National Police quietly set up a team to fight serious organized crime. Sources confirmed a report about this from the AD on Friday. The Taskforce Approach to Criminal Power Structures (ACM) is said to have been established after the murder of crime reporter Peter R. de Vries in July.

According to the newspaper, the police and judiciary are competing over who will tackle serious crime and with what resources and workforce. Commissioned by Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus (Justice and Security), the judiciary is also setting up a team of specialists from different police units. This Multidisciplinary Intervention Team (MIT) also includes the tax intelligence and investigation service FIOD and the Marechaussee. The initiative to set up that team came shortly after the murder of lawyer Derk Wiersum.

Criminologist Cyrille Fijnaut called the plan for their own task force "the stupidest plan in the history of the Dutch police" in a letter to parliament. He pointed out that there is great resistance to it, both within the judiciary and within the police. The plan is ill-considered and undermines the work of the police, he said.

Grapperhaus promised parliament that no "irreversible decisions" would be made on this subject for the time being. He will first answer the MPs' many questions and may also wait for a parliamentary debate on the topic. It will be discussed in a committee debate on undermining crime on November 18.

On Friday, the National Police said that it did not want to respond and that this involves regular police work. The Ministry of Justice and Security said it is still convinced that the new MIT will add value and does not want to comment on the new task force.