Bringing politics back into the study of policing? A case study on the policing of social disorder in Belgium

Abstract

In the latter part of the twentieth century, a trend towards the ‘pluralisation’ of policing emerged, and that trend is continuing in most European countries. In this article, we use Foucauldian governmentality theories to understand plural policing developments. The key point in this article is the conceptual analysis of the power relations generated by the rhetoric regarding and the practice of plural policing. A central objective is to explore the ways in which broader national, regional and local influences, and distinctive political institutions and structures, shape the agendas and actual decisions of key policy actors. The statement made by many Anglophilic scholars, that industrialised countries are becoming increasingly ‘pluralised-privitised’, often seems to have reached the status of universal acceptance. As the division of political power and state constitutional settlements differ in each country, we cannot rashly transfer British realities to other countries. This article broadens the body of knowledge by providing empirical data regarding the situation of plural policing in Belgium, as a case study. In this research, 27 years of security policing have been reconstructed, based on 72 in-depth interviews with politicians and civil servants, and an extensive document analysis. The findings reveal a completely different situation regarding plural policing than the common stream of empirical research in Britain.

Keywords:

• politics
• policing
• pluralisation
• police
• public order
• mayor
• municipalities
• public space

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. For linguistic reasons, each (main) political party has a Flemish and a Walloon department, with a different name, size, political organisation and composition. Some political families have tight relations over the linguistic border, while others keep their distance.

2. All of the interviews were completely transcribed, and some quotes will be used in this article. The presentation of the interview data is anonymous, and each respondent received a unique number, which will be presented beneath the quotes.

3. All of the respondents were very willing to hand over ‘grey’ (confidential), as well as formal, policy documents about a very turbulent and challenging period in security policing history (1985–2010). They were eager to see this reconstruction work performed, as the process and content of policy formulation, negotiation and implementation has never been reported before in a structured, scientific and neutral way. For most of the respondents, the period in which these incidents occurred was one of the most traumatic periods of their lives.

4. New Communal Law (Nieuwe Gemeentewet), B.S. September 3rd 1988.

5. Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16, 21, 22, 34, 41, 54, 56 and 70.

6. De Witte (1988) ‘Security and petty crime’ (Veiligheid en kleine criminaliteit), SEVI-publication, electoral document for the municipal elections.

7. The Ministers of Justice did not interfere with police matters; they had their hands full with the reorganisation of a medieval justice system (prosecution, courts and prisons).

8 Declaration of the Government concerning the ‘Security of the Citizens’ of March 5, 1985.

9. Parliamentary Inquiry Commission concerning terrorism and gangsterism, Parliamentary Documents, Chamber, 59/8-10-1988. The report was published publicly on April 30, 1990.

10. Law of August 5, 1992 concerning the Police Function, Belgian Official Journal, December 22, 1992.

11. Second Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry concerning the ‘Bende van Nijvel’ bis, 1995–1996: based on the necessary adaptations of the organisation and the functioning of the police and justice, as a consequence of the investigation concerning the ‘Bende van Nijvel’, Parliamentary Documents, Chamber, 1995–1996, nr. 537/7.Report of the Parliamentary Commission Wijninckx (1992). Het labyrinth, private milities en politiewezen doorgelicht, SEVI-werkgroep ordehandhaving, SEVI 2, nummer 2087,1, Verslag van de Commissie Wijninckx, 231 p.

12. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Dutroux last consulted on March, 5th 2015.

13. Report of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry in the case, Dutroux-Nihoul, 1996–1997.

14. Numbers 4, 5, 7, 8, 13, 18, 19, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 37 and 40.

15. Dutroux was captured rather quickly after his escape, not by a police officer, but by a forest ranger. The mass hysteria, the moral panic after the escape and the enormous legitimacy gap led to different Parliamentary inquiries on the deficient functioning of the local gendarmerie in allowing Dutroux to escape with a police gun, after being brought to justice to consult his file.

16. Law of December 7, 1998 concerning the integrated police service at two levels, Belgian Official Journal January 5, 1999.

17. The ‘municipal’ police, before the police reform in 1998, were the local (zonal) police (municipal police and brigades of the gendarmerie national) after the reform. A local police zone includes, on average, three municipalities.

18. Report of the speech of the Minister of the Interior, academic conference, Brussels, Politeia, November 7, 1995, nr. 9 (22), Commission Huybrechts ‘towards a better police structure’ Council of Ministers, December 1996, Ministerial Act, January 10, 1997. Note from the Social-Democratic commission Wijninckx, 1985, Governmental Declaration in Parliament, June 28, 1995 by Minister President J.L. Dehaene, Priorities in the federal governmental program, B.S., 1995.

19. Morphology of the police forces, CGL, www.infozone.be last consulted on October 20, 2014.

20. The law concerning the prohibition of private militias dates from before World War II (July 29, 1934) and is still in force at present. The Flemish Militant Gang (VMO – Vlaamse Militante Orde), an extreme right fighting group, was condemned by a court based on this Act.

21. Act concerning surveillance enterprises, security firms and internal surveillance services, Belgian Official Journal, April 10, 1990. Law of April 10, 1990, Belgian Official Journal, May 29, 1990 concerning the private surveillance enterprises and internal surveillance services and the law of July 19, 1991, Belgian Official Journal, August 28, 1997 concerning the regulation of the profession of private detective.

22. Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 21, 22, 26, 28, 34, 38, 54, 55, 56, 68 and 70.

23. The ‘Federal Security and Detention Plan’, Belgian Senate and Chamber, Session 1999–2000, June 13, 2000, 2-461/1 (Senate), DOC 50 0716/001 (Chamber), p. 144.

24. As a Liberal, the Minister pleaded for ‘free market’ principles and the expansion of the private security market, in the Note to the Council of Ministers of P. Dewael ‘Project of law to implement the function of community guards’, December 3, 2006, 2.

25. Law of May 7, 2004 concerning the change of the law of April 8, 1965 concerning the protection of minors and the New Communal Law (L. Onkelinx), Belgian Official Journal, June 25, 2004. Law of June 17, 2004 concerning the change of the New Communal Law (L. Onkelinx, P. Dewael, M. Arena, Belgian Official Journal, July 23, 2004, and Erratum Belgian Official Journal, November 29, 2004.

26. Law of April 25, 2004 concerning the inclusion of art. 17bis in the Law of April 10, 1990 concerning the surveillance enterprises, the security firms and the internal surveillance services (Belgian Official Journal, July 29, 1999). The Law of July 29, 1934 concerning the prohibition of private militias and the Law of July 19, 1991 concerning the regulation of the profession of private detectives (Belgian Official Journal, June, 2004) has been renamed the Law of April 10, 1990 to ‘Law concerning private security’ (see also the ministerial circular OOP30bis, II. 2, nr. 21). Still later, art. 487 of the Programme Law of December 27, 204 (Belgian Official Journal, December 31, 2004) renamed this domain as the ‘Law on the regulation of the private and special security’.

27. Report of the Parliamentary Commission Wijninckx (1992). Het labyrinth, private milities en politiewezen doorgelicht, SEVI-werkgroep ordehandhaving, SEVI 2, nummer 2087, 1, Verslag van de Commissie Wijninckx, p. 231.

28. Art. 1, par. 1, second part, included by art. 3, 3° Law of May 7, 2004.

29. The ban on carrying weapons by security agents was confirmed once again by the Liberal Minister Turtelboom (VLD) in the Royal Decree of March 15, 2011 concerning the regulation of specific methods of surveillance (Belgian Official Journal, April 2, 2011) and the ministerial circular SPV05 concerning the surveillance during leisure time (Belgian Official Journal, March 1, 2011).

30. The guild for private security agencies (Beroepsvereniging voor Bewakingsondernemingen), See: http://www.apeg-bvbo.be/_Uploads/dbsAttachedFiles/BVBO_CenI_final_05012013_Nl.pdf last consulted on May 4, 2014.

31. Law of June 17, 2004 concerning the change of the New Communal Law (L. Onkelinx, P. Dewael, M. Arena), Belgian Official Journal, July 23, 2004, and Erratum Belgian Official Journal, November 29, 2004.

32. Royal Decree of December 5, 2004 concerning the determination of the minimal conditions that communal agents have to meet, as determined in art. 119bis, par. 6, second part, of the New Communal Law, Belgian Official Journal, December 29, 2004, 86558 and the Royal Decree of March 17, 2005 concerning the implementation of the Law of June 17, 2004 concerning the change of the New Communal Law.

33. Act on the ‘community guards’ in Wallonia, February 14, 2008

34. Act of May 15, 2007 concerning the installation of the function of ‘community guard’ and the elaboration of a unit of community guards, Belgian Official Journal, June 29, 2007.