Unconditional jail demanded for attacks on emergency workers

People who attack emergency workers, including police officers, paramedics and train staff, will face an unconditional prison sentence from Thursday, under new rules from the public prosecution service (OM).

Prosecutors will no longer settle such cases with a fine or community service, and every suspect will have to appear in court, the OM said on Wednesday. The rules will apply to offences committed from October 1.

It sets fixed sentencing guidelines for three offences: public violence, assault, and attempted serious assault. An attempt to seriously assault an emergency worker without a weapon and without causing injury, for example, will carry a demand of 3 months in prison.

Justice minister David van Weel told MPs that a similar attack on a member of the public would usually lead to a demand for 80 hours community service, broadcaster NOS reported.

Besides emergency workers, the rules cover security staff, sports referees, public transport workers, teachers, judges, lawyers, politicians and council staff. They also apply to attacks on journalists.

“The impact of this violence on society is huge, but unfortunately we are not seeing it decline,” Lisan Wösten, the OM’s national lead on the issue, said in a statement.

Pressure from MPs
MPs called for tougher sentences early this year after police and firefighters were attacked at New Year, with officers in some places lured into ambushes. “I fully support that approach,” Van Weel wrote in his letter to parliament, according to NOS.

Police officers faced almost 13,000 violent incidents in 2025, and the force’s national lead on the issue, Corry van Breda, has called for heavier sentences.

Since 2006, prosecutors have been able to seek sentences 200% higher for attacks on people in public roles. However, research by the justice ministry’s research centre WODC found this was rarely applied in practice.

The new rules remain a starting point from which prosecutors and judges can still exercise discretion according to the circumstances of a case.

A separate proposal to ban community service for these attacks altogether was criticised last year by the Council of State and judges, who said it would limit their room to weigh individual circumstances.