The police regularly manipulate crime figures, according to a study among police officers by investigative journalism platform Investico. Criminal offenses are kept off the books, police officers try to discourage citizens from filling reports, and cases are marked as 'resolved' when they are not, according to the study published in De Groene Amsterdammer.
The platform surveyed nearly 1,500 police officers and conducted interviews with dozens of cops and others involved.
Dutch citizens are generally more positive about the police than the police officers themselves, according to a reputation survey carried ut by the police. The worst score the police received came from police officers themselves on employership and leadership. According to the report, these scores are "deep into the danger zone", NU.nl reports.
The Dutch police make note of the origin of all police employees to make sure that diversity increases within the corps, Lute Nieuwerth, head of diversity at the police, said in an interview with the Volkskrant.
According to Nieuwerth, the origin of employees is stored in such a way that it can not be traced back to individuals. The registration is to gain insight into how diverse the police force is, he said.
The police want to oblige people caught with illegal fireworks throughout the year to report to the police over New Year's, in an effort to improve the safety of police officers and other emergency workers. Every New Year's there are incidents in which first responders are pelted with fireworks. The police reason that people can't throw illegal fireworks if they have to report to the police over New Year's, NOS reports.
A 46-year-old woman from Gouda was sentenced to institutionalized psychiatric treatment for stalking National Police Chief Erik Akerboom and his wife. The court in The Hague considered it proven that the woman sent the couple over 2,500 threatening emails. They sometimes received 50 per day, NOS reports.
In one email she wrote: "Do not come near me in my neighborhood Erik, because I will really break you". Another read: "No, I will not give you an extra day. Can I kill you or just wait like your predecessor?"
The police unions expanded their labor actions in their conflict with the police about a collective bargaining agreement for officers. From Thursday police officers will no longer collect outstanding fines and other overdue payments, NOS reports.
Since 2015 the police spent 4.7 million euros on lawyers assisting police officers, for example because they used violence, NOS reports based on figures requested from the police.
This year the Dutch Rescue Brigade will again hand out children's wristbands at busy beaches and lakes. Parents can write their phone numbers on the wristbands, making it easier to reunite a lost child with his or her responsible adult, the Telegraaf reports.
The falling crime figures in the Netherlands sometimes clash with reality, National Police chief Erik Akerbom said on Wednesday at the presentation of the police's annual results for 2017. Last year crime figures fell by 11 percent, the fifth year in a row that there's been a decline.
National Police Chief Erik Akerboom thinks that the use of drugs in the entertainment circuit has become too normalized and he wants to get rid of the "normal image" of this type of consumption, he said at an international police summit in Rotterdam on Tuesday, NU.nl reports.
Drug fighters from 120 countries are gathered in Rotterdam to learn from each other and make agreements on an international approach to fighting drug trafficking and production.
In 2017 the Dutch police had fewer incidents in which a police officer used violence during the course of his or her duties than in the year before. Last year cops in the Netherlands used violence 12,394 times, compared to 14,672 in 2016, the National Police announced on Monday.
These uses of violence include all forms of violence the police can use if a situation demands it, such as firing a warning shot or directly at a suspect, pepper spray, baton, or physical violence.
The Dutch police team focused on investigating child pornography is so overworked and understaffed that thousands of child pornography reports go un-investigated, RTL Nieuws reports The Public Prosecutor, police unions, and victim lawyers call for police capacity to be increased.
Last year police officers in the Netherlands faced 9,101 incidents of verbal or physical violence directed at them. That means that every day last year 25 police officers were insulted, threatened or physically abused while working, NOS reports.
The Dutch police plans to extend its contribution to international police missions. National Police Chief Erik Akerboom wants to send dozens of extra police officers abroad in the coming years, he said in a statement on the police site on Friday.
The police responded to a record number of 83,501 incidents involving "disturbed" persons last year, an increase of 12 percent compared to 2016. Between 2013 and 2016 the number of incidents involving disturbed persons increased by nearly 60 percent, according to figures the police released on Tuesday.
Noord-Nederland received the most reports of incidents involving someone showing disturbed behavior with 13,806. Den Haag followed with 10,764, and then Noord-Nederland with 9,862.
Dutch detectives are struggling under a massive workload and as a result can only get to a fraction of their tasks, police union NPB says in a new report that will be sent to the Tweede Kamer on Tuesday. The Netherlands is turning into a "narco state" where drug trafficking thrives and most criminal groups are left undisturbed, the union warns in the report that NOS has in its position.
National Police Chief Erik Akerboom wants a mental health worker available in every neighborhood in the Netherlands. The police increasingly have to respond to emergency situations involving people with mental health problems, and this can be avoided if they get the help they need before things get out of hand, he said in an interview with newspaper AD.
The Dutch police is preparing to test an app that will show officers if a certain car was previously pulled over by another officer, and whether anything was found during that check. This is one of the measures the police want to implement to prevent ethnic profiling and people with an immigration background being pulled over more often, NOS reports.
Police union ACP is calling for more transparency on the costs involved in police deployment to demonstrations. "Our plea is that the police will show how many demonstrations there are a year and what the costs of these demonstrations are", union chairman Gerrit van de Kamp said to RTL Nieuws.
In the coming years, the Dutch police will face a shortage of officers on the streets, especially on night shift and in the rural areas, managers at the National Police, police union NPB and the Police Academy leaders warned in the Volkskrant.
The police discriminated against an administrative officer by forbidding her to wear a headscarf when interacting with the public, the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights ruled on Monday in a complaint filed by the Rotterdam officer, NOS reports.
The officer in question, Sarah Izat, was allowed to wear a headscarf while performing her administrative duties, but had to remove it when interacting with the public - such as when she took 3D declarations.
Five years after the regional police forces in the Netherlands reorganized into the National Police, there are still numerous problems, the Kuijken committee concluded after investigating the state of affairs in the police reorganization. It is still a work in progress, the committee said its report, ANP reports.
A police officer in Rotterdam turned to the College of Human Rights to fight the ban on police officers wearing a headscarf or hijab with their uniform. The woman argues that this is differential treatment based on religion, NU.nl reports.
The woman works mainly in an administrative post at the Rotterdam police. The police leadership allows her to wear her headscarf while doing administrative tasks, but she has to take it off when she has contact with the public in her uniform.
The national unit of the Dutch police is in desperate need of money and staff, and can not perform its work properly in the current situation, Richard Bronswijk, chairman of the Central Works Council, said in an interview with newspaper AD. The current situation resulted in serious criminals not being arrested in some cases, he said.
"There is a disadvantage in terms of people and organization", Bronswijk said to the newspaper. "The reorganization of the National Police was disastrous for us." He's taking the issue to the press, because otherwise nothing changes.
