Army teams up with Amsterdam police on burglaries

The Dutch Army is being deployed in Amsterdam Noord to counteract an increase in burglaries there, the mayor said. Speaking on the television program Buitenhof, Mayor Eberhard van der Laan confirmed the Army worked with police in Noord in December, helping to bring burglaries there down 30 to 50 percent. Without going into details, the mayor said drones are not being used, but "specialized staff members" from the Department of Defense are working in Amsterdam, according to broadcaster AT5. "[It is going] quite well with the security in the city," van der Laan said, though he also spoke about the high number of assassinations, burglaries and robberies. He would not say what exactly the soldiers were doing, if any arrests had been made thanks to the soldiers, and the methodology used to determine the relationship between the army's presence and a decrease in burglaries was not reported. The mayor hopes the army can play a role as the "eyes and ears" of the police. He said details of the plan would soon be released by both the police department and the Department of Justice. A spokesperson for the public prosecutor would not release any further details to newspaper De Telegraaf.