Preventing fans from attending football matches opens up more police resources: Union

The top level of Dutch football should play their matches in empty stadiums if the residents of the Netherlands want to see more police present in their neighborhoods, said Wim Groeneweg. The chair of the ACP police union was interviewed by the Telegraaf after a report from Statistics Netherlands showed that more than half of residents either rarely or never see the police in their own neighborhood.

Groeneweg made the surprising statement about Eredivisie football matches to elaborate his concern about the serious shortage of police officers, and the limits that places on allocating resources for tactical priorities. "The capacity of the police is inadequate and that is worrying," Groeneweg told Telegraaf.

He went on to say that the police have to keep making painful decisions because of the lack of resources. One difficult choice “is that there should be less police effort at football matches," he said.

"The extra deployment of the riot police takes away part of the regular capacity on the street. It is the local police officers and detectives who are also riot police officers," said Groeneweg.

"It also means that we will have to say ‘no’ to certain events, because other police work takes precedence," said Hessel Koster, a spokesperson for the national unit of the police. Those tough choices are the only way that police operations can continue to run smoothly, he said.

Police unions and police departments have told politicians repeatedly over the last few years about the need for more officers. This shortage means that when there is an emergency, community police officers are usually pulled from their neighborhood post if they can respond to a scene quickly, or if they are needed as part of a riot police unit.

As a result, police are no longer visible in neighborhoods and communities across the Netherlands, particularly those outside of urban areas, Statistics Netherlands said.