Mayors oppose plans to merge Brussels police zones

The Brussels Conference of Mayors has issued a negative opinion on a preliminary draft bill that would enable the merger of the Brussels police zones, saying it does not solve the security issues in the capital and increases costs.

The capital's 19 local mayors are jointly calling on interior minister Bernard Quintin (MR) to thoroughly amend the text of the bill, Bruzz reports.

The reaction from mayors and from Brulocalis, the association representing the Brussels municipal authorities, was expected. The idea of merging police zones has been floated for years and was consistently met with sharp criticism from them.

“The preliminary draft is a multi-headed monster,” said Olivier Maingain, mayor of Woluwe-Saint-Lambert.

“The text of the law mandates the merger of the six Brussels police zones, but in the rest of the country, mergers take place on a voluntary basis. Municipal autonomy is not being respected.”

Etterbeek mayor Vincent De Wolf (MR) also had criticisms: “This is a merger of local police forces, while it’s the federal police that is responsible for matters such as organised crime and drug and arms trafficking. We’re not going to solve these problems by merging police zones that don’t even have jurisdiction over them.”

Another major problem, according to the opponents, is the funding of the Brussels police. To encourage the merger, Quintin is promising an extra €55 million spread over five years.

“I'm sorry to say this, but that's a ridiculous amount,” said Auderghem mayor Sophie De Vos (Défi).

“We’ve calculated that there is a structural deficit of €500 million for the financing of the Brussels police force. All municipalities will have to contribute to this.”

Berchem-Sainte-Agathe mayor Christian Lamouline (Les Engagés) said that the argument for the merger lacked proper justification: “In the preliminary draft, we see no objective data, studies or expert advice to justify the merger. The preliminary draft is full of contradictions and gaps.”

The mayors are also critical of the abolition of the police councils, which currently include municipal councillors. In a merger scenario, there would be a single police college consisting of the 19 mayors, the Brussels minister-presidentand the deputy governor.

Calling the merger a “simplistic answer to real problems that are very complex”, Woluwe-Saint-Pierre mayor Benoît Cerexhe (Les Engagés) also had concerns about conflicts of interests, including who would approve budgets for the unified zones.

“This merger will not solve the security problem, but it will cost us more,” Cerexhe said.

“The public prosecutor, the chiefs of police of the zones, the officers: everyone in the field is against this merger.”

Cerexhe said a better solution to rising drug crime in Brussels was more funding for federal and local police and the judiciary.

The merger of police zones was approved by the federal government on 18 July at first reading. The law imposes a single large police zone in Brussels, instead of the six zones that exist today, bringing together a joint force of no fewer than 6,500 officers.

The interior minister is giving the Brussels municipalities one year, after the law has been passed, to complete the merger.

This means that in one year's time, a new chief of police must be appointed, the HR and IT systems of the six zones must be harmonised, an inventory of assets - such as buildings and police cars - must be made, and a first draft of a local security plan must be drawn up.

In a reaction to the negative opinion, Quintin reiterated that he believes that the reform is essential.

Quintin said he would maintain "constructive dialogue with the Brussels authorities" but will continue to push ahead with the reform.