Belgium's federal police 'no longer has the means to do its job effectively'

Belgium's federal police 'no longer has the means to do its job effectively'
© Belga

Belgium's federal police no longer has the means to do its job effectively, an assessment report consulted by La Libre on the optimisation of the federal police concluded.

"To the question of whether the federal police is still up to the task of reacting in a sufficiently flexible way to new events and crises with the means and capacity currently at its disposal, the reply is no," the report states.

Its author, Professor Willy Bruggeman, will present it in Parliament on Wednesday, Belga reports.

The response to the terrorist threat has shown that under such pressure and in today's conditions, such extra efforts could not be repeated. These efforts have furthermore been made to the detriment of other security problems," the report said. In other words: "It is confirmed that the federal police does not have sufficient means or the capacity to be able to carry out its duties effectively," Bruggeman reports.

Between December 2013 and May 2018, the federal police saw a decrease of 394 in its workforce. The professor adds that the 2018 budget is still more than 15% lower than 2012's and 7.5% lower than 2014's.

The Brussels Times


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