Municipalities want event organizers to hire more security guards

Private security firms will be hired to take the places of tens of thousands of officers that will be sent to guard the world leaders at the NATO Summit in The Hague at the end of June. Municipalities have asked event organizers to solve the lack of police in this way.

The ANP visited more than 200 municipalities throughout the country during the last couple of days. Dozens of municipalities have said that event organizers are now hiring private security firms for their events.

This will happen at the Kersenfeest in Driel, and the Pleinfeest in Herveld. Both of these events will take place in Overbetuwe, Gelderland. This edition of the events will be the same size as previous years but the municipality has said “there is less police presence due to the NATO Summit. Therefore, we are hiring extra security guards.”

Municipalities like Enschede, Leiden, Meierijstad, Schiedam, Sittard-Geleen, IJsselstein, Terneuzen, and De Fryske Marren will also have more private security guards than usual at their parties.

Apeldoorn assumes that this year organizers will "organize more themselves in terms of security where possible", because "the use of police is more limited.” Alphen aan den Rijn told organizers last year that “the events during this period will have to be more self regulating.”

Events in Heerlen will also see more private security being used where necessary as a result of the limited police capacity. "However, we can never fully compensate for reduced police capacity," said the Limburg municipality.

The use of private security firms is not a new concept. Organizers have had to arrange their own security more often over the last few years. This was said by the municipalities of Den Helder, Woerden, Boxtel, and Achtkarspelen.

Oldambt is more emphatic with their request that asking organizers arrange their own security this year. Oostzaan in Noord-Holland says: "For years, the police have been withdrawing from event security due to a lack of capacity."

The municipality of Kaag en Braassem has said organizers are often advised by police to hire more security guards. "However, the police indicate that this is not only due to the NATO Summit, but that there are several causes for this, such as the capacity of the police in the broad sense and the coarsening of society."