The Belgian police force has, at no point since 2000, recorded so few crimes as in 2015. This is reported in La Dernière Heure, De Morgen and Het Laatste Nieuws today (Tuesday). The newspapers’ reports are based on comprehensive police crime statistics for the 2015 period in Belgium.
In 2015, a total of 898,826 police reports were recorded compared to 973,586 in 2014, or a decrease of 7.7% throughout the country, with the figure reaching 10% in Brussels.
The terrorist threat, combined with the increased military presence, may partly explain this reduction in the crime rate.
The highest decreases related to vehicle thefts (down 14%), rape (down 7%), the recent phenomenon of “rogue police” ringing doorbells (down 13%), metal theft (down 11.5%) or even pickpocketing (which has decreased by 20%).
On the other hand, dealing in firearms is on the increase (up by 50%) along with terrorism (rocketing by 70%), Internet fraud (up 12.4%) and human trafficking.
(Source: Belga)
