Mayor wants more cops on Amsterdam streets: report

Mayor Femke Halsema of Amsterdam is making an "ultimate attempt" to convince the lower house of Dutch parliament to hire more police officers. She is discussing this matter with Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice and Security, the Telegraaf reports.

Halsema toured Amsterdam's Red Light District during the early hours of Saturday morning, according to the newspaper. She denies that there is complete "lawlessness", as Amsterdam's ombudsman Arre Zuurmond said in previous reports. "But it is true that there are far too few enforcers and officers."

Zuurmond previously stated that Amsterdam's city center turns into "a jungle at night, in which survival of the fittest applies and in which the government is intolerably absent". He also said that crime pays too easily in the Dutch capital, making the criminal career path too attractive for young people.