With an ambitious plan for police reform, Federal Justice Minister Paul Van Tigchelt (Open VLD) is openly coveting for the role of Minister of Interior Affairs in the next government – preferably in combination with Justice, as a kind of "Minister of Security."
Van Tigchelt presented his plan for the police in the Mechelen police station. He wants to work on more efficient deployment of police officers, scaling up the force and the use of artificial intelligence (AI).
"Some things, people have been saying for 10-15 years. Perhaps there has been a bit too little ambition in politics, even during this legislature," Van Tigchelt said during the press conference. "That is a pity, because it is necessary."
Core task is security
Society is evolving at a rapid pace, but the organisational model of the police has remained virtually unchanged since the 1998 police reform. As a result, the police are not agile enough to decisively tackle new phenomena and forms of crime, he stressed.
"There are currently 50,000 police officers working in our country, compared to 37,000 about 20 years ago. So we do not need more officers, there are enough They just need to be organised differently," Van Tigchelt said.
According to him, a greatly simplified organisational structure and a digital police (that works efficiently and leaves simple tasks to technology) are needed to re-arm the police against the challenges of today and tomorrow.
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"The police must also be able to fully focus again on its core task of safety and security, and no longer as an inspection service for all kinds of administrative regulations," he added.
With this call, Van Tigchelt is openly applying for the position of Interior Affairs Minister (currently held by CD&V's Annelies Verlinden) during the next legislature, he told Belga News Agency.
"The police do a good job, the police have been my most important partner throughout my career," he said, adding that he would prefer to combine Interior Affairs with Justice, as a kind of Minister of Security – such as in the Netherlands.
