‘Police chiefs should live in the locality’

A majority of Dutch police chiefs do not live in the region they are in charge of, the AD reported at the weekend.


Of the country’s 21 permanent regional police chiefs, 13 do not live in the area they represent. Nor do 18 of the 22 acting chiefs, the paper said.
Now MPs plan to take steps after the summer to make sure that they do, the Volkskrant reports on Monday, quoting Christian Democrat, Socialist and anti-immigration MPs.
‘You have to physically experience the safety level in a region,’ CDA MP Coskun Cörüz told the paper. ‘The rules for mayors (who do have to live in the locality) and police chiefs should be made the same.’
Home affairs minister Guusje ter Horst told the Volkskrant she was in favour of the change.
The rule requiring police chiefs to live close to their headquarters was abandoned in the 1990s.

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