Ongoing investment in surveillance and protection – safeguarding the rule of law
Threats made by serious criminals, jihadists and far-right extremists – as well as increasing anti-government sentiment and polarisation – mean there has been a sharp increase in the number of people and objects requiring long-term, intensive surveillance and protection, in some cases for many years. Meeting that need requires operational input by the police and the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee, which has a significant impact both on the person being protected and on the available capacity of the surveillance and protection system.
Minister Yeşilgöz-Zegerius: ‘
There are journalists, lawyers, politicians and judges in our country who carry out their work in good faith and serve the rule of law, and just by doing their job they have to contend with threats, intimidation or worse. It’s our duty to ensure that they can carry out their work as safely as possible.’
Following the awful murders of the brother of a crown witness in 2018 and the lawyer Derk Wiersum in 2019, various initiatives were set in motion to improve the provision of surveillance and protection, increase capacity and improve the resilience of lawyers, judges, police officers and journalists. In October last year the Bos Committee produced its advice and recommendations on how to improve the surveillance and protection system to ensure it can continue to combat current and future threats. Some significant steps have already been taken by the National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV), the police, the Public Prosecution Service and the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee, and these will continue.
Minister Yeşilgöz-Zegerius:
‘All the many organisations and professionals involved are prioritising the design of the necessary interventions to make the system stronger, more robust and more flexible. It’s a substantial undertaking for them. From the people going out on the streets every day to those assessing the threats: everyone is working flat out every day to ensure that judges, lawyers, journalists and politicians can safely go about their business.’
New protection concepts are being developed and the available capacity is being used more flexibly in order to maximise efficiency. In Amsterdam, for example, Jewish organisations have recently switched from a static to a dynamic (bespoke) type of protection. New technologies will also be brought in, such as sensors that can promptly pick up on suspicious transactions. The system will also start working with ‘packages’ so that rather than just having both a light and heavy protection regime, more options are available. Surveillance and protection services will however always be tailored to each case, and specific requirements will always be considered. The packages will be fine-tuned to reflect specific threats and circumstances. Because the people receiving the protection understand better than anyone the enormous impact of such measures on their personal and professional life, they too will be involved in the roll-out of the recommendations and the implementation of improvements.
For the police, the provision of surveillance and protection will become a priority. Every regional team will therefore have its own surveillance and protection team. The provision of primary police services needs to be brought back up to full strength. Setting up permanent teams means fewer officers will need to be taken out of neighbourhood and street patrols in order to provide surveillance and protection. At present, four out of 10 units have already done this, and by the end of 2022 the other six will too. Work has also already started on increasing surveillance and protection capacity both within the police and the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee.