In his editorial this Friday, October 18, Fabrice Grosfilley returns to the Arizona work note.
This is just a working note at this stage. It can therefore still be amended, corrected, or even refused. But it is on the table, and it indicates a clear direction. The merger of police zones will be on the menu of the Arizona coalition currently being negotiated at the federal level. The document is on the front page of Evening and of The Echo. He specifies that it is appropriate to provide the six Brussels police zones “of a single command”in order to obtain “greater unity of vision and leadership”car “In recent years, it has once again become clear that security policy in Brussels is too fragmented”. End of quote. Unless the situation turns around, we are therefore on the way to a single police zone for the entire Brussels Region. A scenario that was until now refused by the conference of mayors, but also by the chief commissioners. Zone leaders believe that this is not very effective; they prefer to highlight a coordination that already exists, with the Gold Commander in the event of events that cross municipal borders. It is true that we can doubt that between the Midi zone and the Montgomery zone, the problems to be addressed are the same. Worse, we could even fear that in the event of a single zone, in a tense economic context, we would depopulate the Marlow zone to strengthen the North zone, for example. In short, this risks causing debate, but for the supporters of the merger, which are all the Dutch-speaking parties, there is now a window of opportunity. All it takes is a simple majority in the House to pass this reform, and since the party that most opposes it, the Socialist Party, will not be in the next majority, it’s now or never.
► SEE ALSO: Federal government: a working note provides for the merger of police zones in Brussels
Second point of the note: the removal of consumption rooms for hard drug users. “We ask the City of Brussels to close the consumption room it installed“, we indicate. “With the arrival of this consumption hall near the Midi station, a tolerance zone was established within a radius of 500 meters, creating a lot of nuisance and acting as a magnet for drug sellers and users..” However, professionals and grassroots associations support this principle. Note that a second consumption room is currently being created. On these two points – merger of police zones and closure of controlled consumption rooms –, so it’s a guaranteed clash which is emerging between the future federal coalition on one side and the Brussels mayors on the other. The Brussels government finds itself in a gray zone at this stage since the negotiations have not yet really started, and we do not know how David Leisterh, Ahmed Laaouej, Christophe De Beukelaer and the Flemish negotiators of the future government will be able to tune (or not) their violins on these questions.
In this note on security, we also find the principle of ban on demonstrations for people who committed violence during a previous demonstration, as well as the installation of biometric cameras in football stadiums to enforce stadium bans for hooligans. Prohibitions which we know are not always respected. And then, an even broader idea: that of entrusting more responsibilities to local police, by reducing and reducing the federal police to essential tasks, such as the fight against organized crime. Clearly, administrative tasks or the organization of recruitment, which the federal police manage at the national level for everyone, would therefore be referred to the local police forces.
Here are the main points. We will see what the negotiation will produce in detail. At this stage, as a first comment, we will recall that the fight against drug trafficking is not just a security problem. It is also a social problem and a public health problem. It will take more than closure of a consumption room to overcome addictions. Second remark: the gateway for drugs is the port of Antwerp. This obviously did not escape Bart De Wever. Beyond the police, it is also the action of the customs services that will need to be strengthened. But here too, this will not be enough. If drugs pass less easily through Antwerp, we can trust traffickers to find other routes… through Rotterdam, through Le Havre, through Marseille. The fight is necessary, but we must have the lucidity to know that it will last over time. Finally, last point: security requires investment. The Brussels police zones are understaffed. They are also underfunded. The famous KUL standard, which defines the financing rules, is unfavorable to them. If we are to enter a “big bang” in security, French-speaking negotiators will also have to be attentive to this issue. And let us not see, in a few years, that beyond the martial speeches contained in the government agreements, we have finally decided, on a budgetary level, to make savings on the back of security.
Fabrice Grosfilley
