Dutch national police chief Erik Akerboom is taking over the helm at the AIVD homeland security service after three years in the top police job.

Akerboom, who has a long carrier with the police, follows up Dick Schoof who is leaving the AIVD job after little over a year.

Last October Akerboom slammed the government for not being consistent towards the police, which, he says, is endangering the rule of law.

He said in an interview with the Volkskrant that cutbacks under one cabinet and ad-hoc plans for more finance and staff under the next are destabilising the rule of law and enabling drugs criminality to thrive.

In particular, the government’s plan to form a specialised anti-drugs unit was ‘a good idea in itself’ but, he said, a team of 300 or 400 people is not going to make a difference if not part of a broader approach.

Schoof is moving to the post of secretary general at the justice ministry, the biggest department in The Hague, with some 100,000 civil servants.