Erik Akerboom

Following weeks of violence and rioting in The Hague, primarily in the Duindorp district, the driveway of a firehouse was booby trapped with several homemade caltrop spikes, a firefighter there said on social media.

Dutch authorities said their counterparts in Morocco were essential to the eventual arrest of fugitive suspected crime boss Ridouan Taghi.

The Dutch government is allocating 30 million euros for the purchase of electric shock weapons for the police. Equipping cops with tasers has been high on the police's wish list for some time, and they are now getting their way, RTL Nieuws reports.

Around 17 thousand police officers who may find themselves in a situation in which they have to defend themselves against violence will be equipped with a taser. Part of the 30 million euros will go towards purchasing these weapons, and part will go towards training police officers how to handle and use them.

A group of 20 civil society organizations, led by anti-discrimination action group Controle Alt Delete, filed an official complaint against the police unit Den Haag. According to the organizations, the police in The Hague have been ignoring signals and reports of discrimination within the police for years and that must change. The complaint was filed with National Police chief Erik Akerboom, and a copy was sent to Minister Ferdinand Grappenhaus of Justice and security.

The police are worried about enforcing local firework bans over New Year's and doubt whether these bans contribute to safety, National Police Chief Erik Akerboom said in a letter to parliament. "Maintaining public order is becoming a lot more complex for my people", he said in the letter, the Telegraf reports.

Drug crime has become so big in the Netherlands partly because of inconsistent policy regarding the police, National Police Chief Erik Akerboom said in an interview with the Volkskrant.

"The up and down policy of successive cabinets means we cannot build a good position in the neighborhood. That you cannot build, stable long-term intelligence positions because you are always being asked to do something else", Akerboom said. As a result, the police lost sight of young criminals that start out as drug runners and grow into drug lords. 

The police are liable for damages sustained during a mass shooting in the Ridderhof shopping center in Alphen aan den Rijn in 2011, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday. The authorities knew that gunman Tristan van der V. had psychological problems before he was issued a firearm permit, and he therefore should never have gotten that permit, the Supreme Court ruled.

On 9 April 2011, Tristan Van der V. opened fire in the Ridderhof shopping center. He killed six people and injured 16 others before committing suicide. 

National Police chief Erik Akerboom is calling on the government to equip police officers with tasers. An incident in Rotterdam last week, in which a cop was knocked out by a member of a wedding procession, is not an isolated incident, according to the police chief. "As the police, we must increasingly enforce authority. People do not want to be corrected", he said to the Telegraaf. 

In the first half of this year, the Dutch police registered 5,113 cases of aggression and violence against police officers. These figures are usually released on an annual basis, but the police decided to release provisional figures at the media's request after four cops were injured during arrests in Rotterdam over the weekend, NOS reports. 

The 21 thousand cops who have to work this New Year's will be equipped with earplugs to protect their hearing against firecrackers and other fireworks. As the government is refusing to respond to the plea of the police, dozens of other civil society organizations, doctors and many municipalities to ban firecrackers over New Year's, the National Police will take other measures, chief Erik Akerboom said, NU.nl reports.

On Friday the Dutch government will announce a nationwide ban on the strongest consumer fireworks - fireworks that fall in the so-called third category like strips and rolls of firecrackers, sources in The Hague told broadcaster NOS. Both the fireworks sector and the police are dissatisfied with the ban. 

The ban will take effect from New Year's 2020-2021, according to the broadcaster. Category three fireworks, which form only a small share of the Dutch market, are already banned in Belgium and Germany.