The police were warned in the 1990s that it was too dangerous to deliberately cause traffic jams in an effort to stop a car being driven by suspects, the AD reports on Tuesday.

At the weekend, a 35-year-old man from Rotterdam was killed when his car was rammed by a suspect vehicle caught in a police-made traffic jam.
The accident took place on the A2. Police had created the traffic hold up in an effort to stop the car which had driven off from a petrol station without paying.

Inappropriate
Two reports given to police chiefs in the 1990s stated such tactics were inappropriate.
‘It is out of proportion to use a human shield,’ Frank Scheffer, who was one of the researchers at the time, told the paper. ‘It is never justifiable to risk some else’s life.’
Motoring organisation ANWB has also condemned the police action. ‘People who knew nothing [about the incident] were involved and one person was killed – all for a couple of litres of petrol,’ director Guido van Woerkom was quoted as saying.
The suspected petrol thief, a 47-year-old man from Tilburg, will appear in court on Tuesday. He has been charged with manslaughter.