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Belgium: "shameless" police condemned

01 November 1997

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The Police Committee of the Belgian Parliament has condemned the "shameless attitude" of the Belgian police, noting that complaints against them have risen for the third year in succession. They also criticise the lax attitude towards disciplining police officers who step out of line.

In their report the Committee note that "most officers go unpunished. In the last three years there have been only 78 prosecutions against police officers, mostly for drunk driving and other traffic misdemeanours". At the same time the list of registered offences by police officers looks very different, with 918 crimes being registered in the last 3 years. Violence against civilians accounted for 38% of all complaints, arbitrary acts for 11%, while threatening behaviour was good for 9% of the total complaints. Yet the prosecution statistics reveal that only 9% of all prosecutions of police officers fall into this category. The Committee is scathing in its critique: "The Judiciary is not acting [against the police], while disciplinary measures generally leave unruly police officers unscathed."

Gazet Van Antwerpen 22.9.97.

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