Dutch police facing €150 million budget shortage: report

The police in the Netherlands are facing a budget shortage of 157 million euros, newspaper AD reports based on an internal report it gained insight to. That is much higher than the potential deficit of between 30 and 70 million euros the police reported last month.

The police said the deficit is a result of unforeseen expenses, such as extra investments in cybersecurity, personnel care, and cleaning up drug labs.

In June, the police appointed the Reversal Task Force, to see where the police can make cutbacks. In the report AD saw, that task force concluded that the police lack financial discipline, giving little to no thought to things like what an operation will cost. The report also said that the police leadership is not frugal with money and has a too large staff - 650 full time employees, instead of the 350 there is room for.

The looming budget deficit means that there are definitely some cutbacks in the police's future. "This is a particularly bad time to not have the finances in order," Jan Struijs of police union NPB said to AD, referring to calls for stricter enforcement after the murder of crime reporter Peter R. de Vries. "Safety is going completely on sale."