Bus drivers to be police "eyes and ears"

Arriva bus drivers and the police will be working more closely together in the future. The bus drivers will act as extra "eyes and ears" for the police and information on incidents on buses will be better exchanged between the police and bus companies, NU.nl reports. This closer cooperation is already happening in a trial phase in the regions Zuid-Holland, Gelderland, Overijssel and Flevoland. It will now be implemented across the country. "The approach in these regions was a great success" , Anton Jansen of the Oost-Nederland police said to AD. "That's why we want to introduce the cooperation in the whole country." "With the bus drivers we share information on wanted suspects and missing persons", Jansen explained explained. The bus drivers work as extra eyes in burglaries, robberies and missing person cases. In the regions where the trial period was done, all public transport incidents were registered in a central database, to give the police an overview on which routes have the most problems. This is not yet common practice everywhere, but the information exchange between bus companies and police will be improved. "If we arrest someone for burglary, we often do not know if he also causes problems on public transport", Jansen said. "Through the shared database, we know about that. Notorious ticket-less riders often have more to answer for. The judge can therefore impose effective penalties."