Increased complaints at Belgian police from population

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Flanders News : More complaints against the police

Flanders News said:
Last year, the police watchdog, Committee P, received over 2,200 complaints filed against the police in general or against individual policemen. That's an average of 6 cases each day. The number is 16% up on 2004 and it's the fifth successive year that the complaints are up.
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A vast majority of complaints concerns local police, with only a small minority of complaints involving federal police.

According to Walter Peeters of the Committee P, most grievances have to do with the police failing to intervene, not acting neutrally or treating people in a different way.
...
About 1 in 8 complaints turn out to have a real ground.

Last year, 150 police officers were eventually convicted by a court.
...

I heard on the TV news that many people complained at the inefficiency and "leniency" (read "laziness") of the police. Many people think that too often fail to intervene or take appropriate actions to solve crimes.
 
I have checked the requirements to become a policeman/policewoman in Belgium. There are 4 ranks, which in French are called :

- cadre auxiliaire : it is not required to have graduated from secondary school
- cadre de base : requires a secondary school diploma
- cadre moyen : requires a college or university diploma in social sciences, psychology or criminology
- cadre des officiers : requires a university diploma + passing an entrance examination.

With 6 years of seniority, a policeman can pass to the immediately higher rank.

I heard on TV recently that there weren't enough policemen in Brussels because one of the requirement was to speak French and Dutch at least conversationally. Despite numerous free preparation courses, many still fail. In Wallonia and Flanders, only one language is necessary. However I noticed that quite a few police officers can speak at least basic English, everywhere in the country.
 

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