Heavily armed police unit increasingly responding to people with "disturbed" behavior
The Dutch police’s elite unit for high-threat operations, the Special Intervention (Service Dienst Speciale Interventies, DSI), is being increasingly called to incidents involving mentally disturbed individuals, NOS reports.
The DSI, traditionally reserved for hostage situations, terrorism, and other extreme threats, responded to 80 such incidents in 2020. That number rose to around 200 per year in subsequent years, and by August 2025, the unit had already been deployed nearly 130 times. In 2024, all DSI personnel reportedly received specialized training on handling incidents involving mentally disturbed individuals.
Rienk de Groot, head of the DSI, described the trend as “a serious development” because every deployment involves life-threatening situations. “It is dangerous for the suspect, for bystanders, because they can be attacked. And it is dangerous for police officers and DSI members. When we have to make an arrest, we are often confronted with violence,” he told NOS.
De Groot cited shortages in mental health services as a key driver. “It is a social issue where the police ultimately engage in symptom control. Investments in mental healthcare are necessary, but those are choices the government must make.”
DSI officers face extreme hazards. “It regularly happens that we are doused with gasoline, or that people threaten to blow up their homes, or that we are attacked with knives as we enter,” de Groot told the newspaper.
Aad Egberts, a police negotiator with nearly 20 years of experience, told AD that negotiators now spend roughly 95 percent of their time dealing with individuals with unexplained or disturbed behavior rather than traditional hostage or kidnapping cases.
