Is the Federal Police General Inspectorate understaffed?
Do you think that there are too many cops in Brussels, or more generally in Belgium? Or are you quite worried about the lack of policemen in your neighbourhood? Whatever you may perceive, it is true that policemen need to be controlled and inspected by higher authorities, in case they breach the law or cause damages to citizens.
This is precisely what the Federal Police General Inspectorate does in Belgium. This public entity carries out two tasks: it is in charge of inspecting the overall work of the local and federal police services, providing recommendations, and it also works on the complaints each citizen can submit following a police operation or how a policeman behaved. The Inspectorate then can decide to submit the case to judiciary authorities.
In a democratic State that complies with the rule of law, such services are fundamental, in particular nowadays as the police services have been working under pressure in a context of terrorism and attacks.
However, it seems that the Inspectorate is understaffed today, as the Belgian Dutch-speaking newspaper, Het Nieuwsblad, affirmed on Sunday 6th of August. The lack of staff is significant, as the public entity is working with 96 employees. And over the last months, it has suffered a reduction of 25% of the staff, which means that less than 75 people are currently working to assess what all the Belgian police services do in the whole country. The number of employees is not enough, and the Federal authorities are concerned about it. Olivier Van Raemdonck, the spokesperson of the home affairs Minister, Jan Jambon, stated that the Federal authorities « aim to recruit as much as possible”.
While the administrative authority is understaffed, it is also not clear how it will be managed in the near future. The current director of the Federal General Inspectorate of police has officially retired on the 1st August and is supposed to be replaced soon. As no successor was found by both the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Home Affairs, François Adam is still -non-officially – leading this department. It is quite a nonsense though: he does not have the right to carry a security pass and weapons anymore, which means that he should enter buildings only with a guest pass and no gun. M. Van Raemdonck said the Federal authorities have no other option, since the “main candidate withdrew”. He also added that “This is why we asked M. Adam to stay more, until 1st September”. A typical Belgian fact?
