Gouda police chief warns against repression-only approach

Tuesday 21 September 2010

Cutting spending on youth social workers and other initiatives will backfire on efforts to reduce street crime, Gouda police chief Paul van Musscher says in Tuesday's Volkskrant.

'If all you use is repression, it will come back to you,' Van Musscher said in an interview. Cutting efforts to prevent crime and get youths on the straight and narrow will lead to 'ghetto-like neighbourhoods where the police can only go by using violence', he said. 'I have seen that in France.'

The Volkskrant says Gouda has the highest percentage of problem youths of Moroccan origin in the country and the reoffending rate is high.

'But our integral approach using family coaches and street social workers does work,' Musscher told the paper. 'We are an example for other cities.'

The new government is likely to take a tougher approach to street crime and Geert Wilders has made a 'very tough crackdown on Moroccan street terrorists' a central part of his approach.

Van Musscher said he is also opposed to ethnic registration, another wish of Wilders, saying he has moral objections. 'We know who our troublemakers are,' he said. 'The only thing that matters to me is the way they behave.'

© DutchNews.nl

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