Tempers flared on Wednesday, between the SLFP-Police union and Brussels alderman Yvan Mayeur, during a meeting of the cooperation committee dealing with an internal police evaluation report. The report points out various failures which led to the national protest on November 6th ending in riots and 120 police officers being injured. Brussels alderman Yvan Mayeur denounced “personal attacks, harassment and intimidation attempts from the SLFP”, and said the meeting had been “a waste of time”.
There was a heated discussion between the alderman and the chief of Brussels-Ixelles police”, admitted Vincent Gilles, national president of the SLFP-Police. “Mr. Mayeur thinks we have got it in for him and are playing the blame game. Not at all. We are trying to understand why our colleagues had to face protesters for 30 minutes with no back up.”
The union highlights a few suggestions to improve procedure. “Each cooperation committee will draw up a comprehensive report. These will then be reviewed by the high cooperation committee which will try its best to find a global solution.”
The internal police report highlighted mostly an equipment problem. “We will work on the issue of buying more equipment”, indicated Mr. Gilles. “There are regulations, but they are not detailed enough. The result is that different police forces use completely different equipment. Stricter minimum standards must be set up. The federal police could achieve this relatively fast.”
A new meeting has been scheduled for December 17th.
(Source: Belga)
