Living close to serious violence

Shots being fired at a home, the use of serious violence in a residential area or coming face to face with a weapon when you open your front door. In the event of serious violence as a result of organised and subversive crime, mayors must also have the power to shut down a premises if public order has been or is likely to be disturbed around the property. Today, Minister Yeşilgöz-Zegerius (Justice and Security) submitted the bill that is intended to regulate this power to shut down premises in the Municipalities Act to the House of Representatives.

Minister Yeşilgöz-Zegerius:

'In order to increase the safety of local residents, it is crucial for mayors to have the right tools to take action. At the moment, this is not always possible. However, this bill gives mayors the opportunity to act and to shut down a premises by regulating this more clearly and with legal safeguards.'

Currently, mayors are permitted to shut down a premises in the event of disturbance to public order due to conduct in the premises in question. This is known as serious residential nuisance. However, this power does not always appear to be sufficient. For example, explosives were thrown at the home of a member of a motorcycle gang in Nieuwstadt. It was not possible to shut down the premises at the time because in order to do so, different types of serious nuisance needed to occur there regularly over a long period. As far as possible, mayors are therefore still resorting to an emergency order for a closure.

In order to keep districts safe, it is important for a mayor to be able to maintain or restore public order in disturbed situations. Hand grenades being hung on the doorknob, the fear of imminent contract killings; these are things that place enormous pressure on a neighbourhood. Out of fear of aggression, residents no longer have the courage to move freely in their own neighbourhood. This expansion will allow mayors to take action if something like this happens. This was also a wish on the part of the mayors themselves. The bill has also been made applicable to the authorities of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba.

The House of Representatives and the Senate still have to debate the bill.