Preventing Crime & Creating Safer Communities
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Crime Prevention Information & News

Creating Safer Communities in Europe: a crime prevention sourcebook

BELGIUM

Before the 1990s crime prevention was carried out by the three types of Police in Belgium - the national gendarmerie, provincial police and local municipal forces. This was mostly based on crime control and opportunity reduction. The 1990s have seen a dramatic increase in crime prevention activity in Belgium, mostly based around government and local authority initiatives aimed at the welfare and well-being of neighbourhoods and communities. As in France, the police with their more conventional approach to crime control, were initially sidelined from these new developments but there are now attempts being made to integrate community orientated policing into neighbourhood crime prevention.

In 1994, the Permanent Secretariat for Prevention Policy (VSPP) was set up as a new central service at the Ministry of the Interior. The VSPP has two main functions - to develop crime prevention policy and support local crime prevention initiatives. It also analyses crime statistics, produces crime prevention literature and organises training and seminars. VSPP programmes aim to prevent: theft, violence and drug misuse.

The VSPP has divisions for the following: local advisors dealing with local crime prevention policy and support to security and crime prevention projects, the organisation and planning of activities and training, documentation and information, translation and legal affairs.

The VSPP has a budget of 3 billion Belgium Francs (£60 million) of which 2 billion is awarded as a series of contracts to municipalities.

Since 1993, local police forces and medium sized local authorities have been able to sign a security/prevention contract. This enables them to take a variety of measures aimed at increasing security in their area. 29 Municipalities have signed such contracts. it is estimated that 70% of the measures taken as a result of these contracts are aimed at qualitative and quantitative assistance to local police forces and that 30% are aimed at developing both short-term and long-term local crime prevention policy.

Prevention contracts are for smaller grants, with 46 areas having benefited. There is also a separate drugs prevention plan which overlaps with the other types of contract. The decision to become involved in any of these programmes is at the discretion of the local Mayor. In the past local authorities did little about crime prevention, but now at least 60 Belgian towns have security or prevention contracts and/or a drugs plan.

The Police

The three tier police service in Belgium is being changed. Some police departments have a crime prevention unit or a crime prevention officer (distributing prevention literature, holding car and household security exhibitions and conducting security surveys of homes, shops and factories), but this depends on the attitude of the local chief of police. As a result, there are no official figures on the number of police crime prevention units. Since 1990 the police, by law, must monitor private security firms. In the larger cities in Belgium, there are now some experimental "neighbourhood" watch schemes.

Neighbourhood Information Network - Westhoek

In 1994 the Westhoek area, near the French border was suffering from a large number of 'ram-raid' robberies from shops. The young gangs involved would smash into shops and then escape at high speed in stolen cars, across the border into France. Local people were so incensed that some of them set up a 'vigilante' group which patrolled the streets. This group was banned by the authorities, who were concerned about the dangers both to the participants and their targets (who had been known to use guns), but an alternative system was offered by the police. This was based on the 'neighbourhood watch' principle, implemented widely in North America and Britain, but adapted to Belgian norms. The scheme hinges round a co-ordinator who facilitates the two-way flow of information between the police and networks of local people. By 1997, there were 30+ Buurtinsformatienetwerks (as they are known) who have grouped themselves into a non-profit association.

Future Trends in Crime Prevention

There is now better co-ordination at a local level because of the legal requirement that the mayor, public prosecutor and the three police forces - the Gendarmerie, Provincial and local - co-operate and co-ordinate crime prevention policy. The VSPP see successful crime prevention as a locally based partnership between the local authority, the police and the public.

Examples of activities

Community Negotiators are civilians working for the police force who are responsible for improving the relationship between the police and immigrant communities. Their tasks are to counteract negative stereotypical attitudes on both sides and to diffuse possible tensions in ethnic neighbourhoods.

Transit Centres in a number of Belgian cities offer temporary accommodation and support for drug users before being offered long-term assistance elsewhere. They fill the gap for marginalised addicts who are receiving little or no assistance from existing medical or social services. They thus offer shelter to drug users who present themselves there, or who have been picked up by the police.

Parking Watchers are young people, usually students doing casual work, who are deployed to prevent thefts of and from cars. They patrol Belgian cities by bicycle, handing out leaflets to drivers who are parking their cars. These leaflets contain simple preventative advice on how to make cars more secure. However the real strength of the parking watchers is the deterrent effect of their maximum presence, their high visibility and mobility and co-operation with the police.

Fan Coaching is designed to reduce football stadium violence by creating a framework of managed activities for individuals who claim to support a particular club and by setting up a number of far-reaching educational projects with their help. The "goal" of this initiative is to prevent young supporters from being dragged into delinquent behaviour.

Neighbourhood Contact Committees have been set up to increase social cohesion and problem solving within a neighbourhood. In Ghent for example, residents meet monthly to discuss housing, neighbour disputes, the provision of play facilities and other topics affecting the neighbourhood.

Civic Wardens. These are based on the job description of the Dutch 'City Guards' (see Netherlands chapter). Civic Wardens are now employed in 16 Belgian cities. They are recruited from the unemployment register, which they must have been on for at least three years. People over 40 years are preferred. Their role consists of three tasks: prevention - visible presence and supervision of public and communal areas, information - observing problems and informing the relevant authorities, assistance - helping people or calling specialised services. They work in city centres, derelict areas, around schools, on public transport and in high-rise buildings.

Contact

Government

Kris van Limbergen, Permanent Secretary for Crime Prevention, Ministry of the Interior, Rue de la Loi, 1040 Bruxelles, Belgium. Tel: (0032) 2 500 2447

The Interior Ministry has a World Wide Web site on crime prevention at: http://vspp.fgov.be (opens a new window).

Academic

Peter Goris, Research Group on Juvenile Criminology, Faculty of Law, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Hooverplein 10, B-3000, Leuven, Belgium. Tel (0032) 16 325279 Fax: (0032) 16 325468