The number of judicial files against Brussels police officers has increased by fifteen percent between 2020 and 2021, according to the latest annual report of the General Inspectorate of the Federal and Local Police. In 2021, there were 82 judicial files against police officers for Brussels, an increase of fifteen percent compared to 2020.
In 2021, the General Inspectorate, an independent control body, counted 459 judicial files against police officers for the whole of Belgium. That is six percent more than the 434 files in 2020, but significantly less than in 2019, when 552 files were pending. In Brussels, too, the number of judicial files increased to 82 in 2021, a difference of fifteen percent with a year earlier.
“In 2020, the number of judicial files had dropped markedly,” the annual report reports. “After all, Covid-19 had an impact on the general police (and therefore also on our judicial) functioning.”
This is the result, on the one hand, of “two long lockdowns with, among other things, a ban on gatherings, a night clock, compulsory homeworking and thus new working arrangements with the judicial authorities” and, on the other hand, “the continuing understaffing”, according to the supervisory body.
The number of administrative files against police officers remained the same at 485.
Strong Increase in Liège And Brussels
The number of legal files against Dutch-speaking police officers fell by nine percent, while that on the French-speaking side rose by 19 percent. On that side of the language border, there were 274 judicial files in 2021, compared to 230 in 2010. In Flanders, the number of files fell from 204 in 2021 to 185 a year earlier.
There was an increase especially in the judicial districts of Liège (110 files or a quarter more) and Brussels (82 files or plus 15 percent). In East Flanders there were 67 files in 2021 compared to 60 in 2020 (an increase of 12 percent), in Antwerp 58 in 2021 or a decrease of 15 percent.
More ‘Voluntary Assault And Battery’
Of the criminal files against police officers in 2021, 112 involved “voluntary assault and battery”, an increase of 56 percent compared to 72 cases in 2020. Investigations into breach of professional secrecy or defamation accounted for 70 files in 2021, compared to 51 a year earlier .
In addition, this includes “acts of arbitrariness by a civil servant”, threats, sexual offences, harassment or forgery.
As regards the number of complaints against police officers reported to the Inspectorate by the federal and local police, there was a status quo with 4,304 complaints in 2021. There were 2,837 complaints against the local police and 1,467 against the federal police. In 2021, Committee P. opened 2,793 complaint files and transferred 11.9 percent of them to the judicial authorities.
This article is originally published on .bruzz.be
