Municipal Law Enforcement Officers: towards a new system of local policing in the Netherlands?

Abstract

Since the early 2000s, Dutch city councils have sought to professionalise City Wardens (Stadswachten), transforming them into Municipal Law Enforcement Officers (MLEOs). MLEOs, who hold limited police powers, are now regarded as 'Special Investigative Officers' (Buitengewoon Opsporingsambtenaren-BOAs) and are mostly appointed to supervise local neighbourhoods and town centres. Compared to Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs, who are lower-rank police officials) and private (or commercial) security guards, MLEOs are a different type of 'plural' or 'auxiliary' policing agents, employed by the municipal authorities. This paper explores why MLEOs have become so popular in the Netherlands; the practice and practicalities of municipal policing; and whether the Dutch police will maintain their central position in a highly fragmented system of local security governance. The underlying purpose here is to reflect on the particularities of auxiliary policing in a non-English-speaking nation.

Occupational Safety of Municipal Police Officers: Assessing the Vulnerability and Riskiness of Police Officers’ Work

“…These are officers, candidates, and other employees [30]. Although such a division of members of the municipal police is not used in Slovakia, in other countries, such a division is common practice [31][32][33][34]. In Poland, for example, members of the municipal police can be divided into three groups according to the tasks they perform: prevention, performance, and logistics [35].…”

Just ‘students, old timers, and sammies’? Exploring the role of stewards and private matchday security in the plural policing of Scottish football

“…The literature on plural policing published since 2015 addresses, at least in part, this issue. Nøkleberg's research (2019Nøkleberg's research ( , 2020 contributes to a recent empirical base that includes research elsewhere in Europe (Brown, 2017;de Maillard and Zagrodzki, 2017;Devroe, 2017;O'Neill, 2017;Terpstra, 2017;van Steden, 2017) and beyond (van Stokkom and Terpstra, 2018). 3 In contrast to plural policing, which has been well traversed in the literature, the topic of private stewarding has been subject to comparatively less academic interest, especially as it relates to football events.…”

“…The literature on plural policing published since 2015 addresses, at least in part, this issue. Nøkleberg’s research (2019, 2020) contributes to a recent empirical base that includes research elsewhere in Europe (Brown, 2017; de Maillard and Zagrodzki, 2017; Devroe, 2017; O’Neill, 2017; Terpstra, 2017; van Steden, 2017) and beyond (van Stokkom and Terpstra, 2018). 3…”

Plural policing as professional strife. Municipal officers and police officers in the Netherlands

“…Through these programmes, the long-term unemployed were given the opportunity to develop work experience as surveillance personnel. As such, city wardens had the same powers as ordinary citizens and were mostly used for general surveillance, to prevent so-called ‘petty crimes’, and for a range of alleged inferior policing chores, sometimes granting them the nickname of ‘the police’s mailmen’ (Hauber, 1994; Van Steden, 2012, 2017). In the beginning of the 21st century, a national plea for strict law enforcement led to the reorganization and professionalization of these city warden projects.…”

“…In the beginning of the 21st century, a national plea for strict law enforcement led to the reorganization and professionalization of these city warden projects. The ensuing new ‘city surveillance agencies’ implied the gradual employment of new, trained and more professional personnel with the qualification of ‘Special Investigative Officer’, known as BOA in Dutch (an abbreviation of Buitengewoon Opsporingsambtenaar; Van Steden, 2017). 1…”