The Dutch police service is in serious financial trouble, according to documents about the financial position of the country’s 25 police forces acquired by news service ANP.

The documents show that 21 of the 25 police forces will not keep spending within their budgets by 2011, with the total shortfall set to reach as high as €100m.
And according to the Telegraaf, unions expect half of the country’s forces to go technically bankrupt. The Drenthe force is already under direct home affairs ministry supervision because it is millions of euros in debt, union ANPV tells the paper.
ANP says some forces also face fines for not fulfilling the agreed quota for boosting staff numbers by 2,300.
MPs from the opposition Socialist party (SP) and anti-immigration party (PVV) have now called on the government to scrap its plans to cut spending on the police €100m in 2011, says ANP.
But Attje Kuiken of the coalition Labour party (PvdA) told ANP that police forces should first look at where they can make savings before asking the government for help.
Home affairs minister Guusje ter Horst, who is responsible for the police, is talking to the senior police officers about the spending difficulties. However, her spokesman said the police figures ‘have not been accepted as hard facts’.