“They will be taken by the federal police force” The municipal council in Leuven approved on Monday (29 August) the recruitment of 13 new police inspectors. However, the mayor of the city, Louis Tobback (sp.a), fears that the reinforcement will be directly picked up by the federal government.
"Under current conditions, the local police is often obliged to strengthen the federal police. And it will get worse," he said.
"With the terrorist threat, local police are increasingly requested to assist their federal colleagues. A limited number of hours for this purpose exist. In recent years, our own share was barely 55%. In 2016, we passed this limit already by 1 July.”
Leuven received a letter from the Federal Home Affairs to start establishing the new capacity for next year.
"Our new inspectors serve to plug the holes in the federal police force. I´m happy to support the federal authorities, but the current minister and his predecessors are responsible for a huge deficiency in the staffing of the federal police. With more money, they wouldn’t have to rely so much on the local police to do their job."
The Minister of State has reiterated his opinion that a merger of the Brussels police zones would contribute to solving the staffing problem.
The Brussels Times (Source: Belga)
