Mayors of municipalities in Groningen will work together to combat undermining crime in their province. The directors believe that the subject deserves more priority.
Today they presented the report ‘Ondermijning in het Ommeland’ about the different forms of crime in nine municipalities around the city of Groningen.
The report states that these municipalities appear to be a breeding ground for drug criminals. In ‘De Ommelanden’, as the suburbs are called, there is too little capacity to counter criminal undermining.
Moreover, researchers conclude that there are structurally too few officers and that the officials involved are chronically overburdened. The municipal organization is also vulnerable in the event of illness or leave. According to the report, officers are reluctant to go to the far corners of their area because they are less likely to get to other reports. Drug crime in particular benefits from this, writes RTV Noord.
There is a relatively high level of poverty in De Ommelanden, which encourages drug use. Moreover, people in hopeless situations are interesting for criminals, the report concludes. “Hemp has become commonplace as a result. It is an accepted form of agriculture in many communities.”
The report also shows that residents often do not trust the government. Because the village communities are relatively closed, criminal activity and subversion often go unreported.
Hard drugs are easy to score and the chance of being caught by the often young dealers in this sparsely populated area is low. Dealers quickly realize that they are being followed and often know the region like the back of their hand. Finally, the “favorable” location also plays a role. Drugs can easily cross the border into Germany or leave the country via ports such as Lauwersoog or Zoutkamp.
Need more officials
In order to combat drug trafficking, the researchers believe that more civil servants should be deployed in every municipality to combat undermining. Special teams should also be set up with different professionals to tackle subversion.
The mayors involved announce that they will start with a regionally operating intervention team that will deal with inspections in the north. “With the intervention team we show that we consider compliance with the rules important and that we act as one government. These checks must have a preventive effect,” said the mayors.
They also want to formulate a so-called Groningen standard in the approach to undermining. This standard is about the joint ambitions and the harmonization of policy.
