Amsterdam entrepreneurs hire private guards to fight drug-related thefts, nuisance
Entrepreneurs around Oosterpark in Amsterdam have hired private security guards starting in May to tackle growing disturbances from homeless drug users, including thefts, drug dealing, and open use in shops and on the street — a move the local district chairwoman called a “bloody shame,” Het Parool reported.
The patrols, financed in part by the Oost district, will run through August in the Dapperstraat, Eerste van Swindenstraat, and Oostpoort shopping center. The entrepreneurs’ associations proposed the plan after long-standing complaints.
Carolien de Heer, chairwoman of the Oost district council, said: “We expect the nuisance to increase then, when people are more on the street.”
She described the private guards as a visible “flying brigade” on bicycles. They have fewer powers than official enforcers but can quickly summon police when they witness thefts or other disturbances.
The problems extend beyond Oosterpark. In the Haarlemmerbuurt, street manager Sheila Prommenschenckel told Het Parool that a robbery took place on Tuesday in a wine shop, adding that such incidents happen weekly. “Another shop manager is almost burned out because she can’t handle it anymore,” she said.
Prommenschenckel believes many offenders come from the homeless shelter on the Transformatorweg, on the other side of Westerpark. She sees people sitting on benches at Haarlemmerplein every day, often with bottles of strong liquor. “That can go well for a long time and suddenly escalate.”
Street manager Antoinette Poortvliet, responsible for the Kalverstraat, Heiligeweg, Leidsestraat, and Koningsplein, said nuisance from loitering youths and homeless people has increased over the past year despite existing private security.
“Some employees, especially young girls, no longer feel comfortable on the floor when they open a store alone or have to close alone after closing time and go home,” she told Het Parool.
Poortvliet added, "They intervene, and one day later, a nuisance-giver is standing laughing next to them.” She stressed that people who beg “must be helped and not left to their fate" but said that nuisance, theft, and intimidation affect the sense of safety for the locals. “The police and enforcement are understaffed; we have to solve it ourselves. We just don’t know how.”
In the Spaarndammerstraat, an alcohol ban introduced at the beginning of the year has brought slightly more enforcement but has only shifted the problem to the other side of the Spaarndammerdijk, according to Stijn Schipmolder, a board member of the local entrepreneurs’ association. He called it “a band-aid” and “a small victory for the street, but no structural solution.”
