The Special Intervention Service, which is used by terrorist threats, faces severe staff shortage. The lack of elite troops may take longer for terror suspects and extremely dangerous criminals are apprehended.
The anti-terrorist unit is looking hard for members of special squads (ATs), military police, snipers and marines. The department now employs about four hundred people, but there are dozens of vacancies.
Since the increased threat of terrorism in the Netherlands have increasingly specially trained and armed policemen and soldiers on standby 24 hours a day. ,, This attracts a huge strain on my people, “says Remmert Heuff, head DSI in police magazine Blue. ,, We urgently need people who can keep a cool head at high threat.”
The National Police will not say in which specialized units within the DSI pain is greatest. ,, That’s classified, we want terrorists make no wiser than necessary, “a spokesperson know.
Imago problem
Police Scientist Jaap Timmer is not surprised the deficit. ,, The anti-terror unit has an image problem, especially within the police. So feel officers are reluctant to go to work at an AT and continuously at ungodly hours must be ready. They barely have enough time for a social life. “
Timmer warned that the shortage could have serious consequences. ,, Terrorists and armed and dangerous villains can continue to roam more freely if there is no one to pick them. “
Do not like stopgap
Gerrit van de Kamp, Chairman of police union ACP, fears that the current elite troops become overworked. ,, It can not be that run by the staff shortage DSI members additional risk. If that happens, the risk of accidents increases. ” Van de Kamp does not want ordinary agents – as a stopgap -. Be allocated to the tasks of the elite
The selection criteria for the anti-terror unit are strict. However ,, there are plenty of sports and motivated police officers for this heavy work, “says Timmer. ,, The police management should pull out all the stops to win those agents.”
The government came early this year by 10 million over the bridge to expand the “rapid response teams” of DSI. Moreover, from 2016 another 15 million euros a year. The inconspicuous “rapid response teams” drive around constantly in the Netherlands to respond quickly to 112 reports about extremely dangerous suspects.
Earn More
,, It is the whether the vacancies are filled up with the extra money, “says Timmer. ,, This highly-trained agents are also in demand in the private sector, such as security companies. There they can earn more than the government. It is important that the DSI gets more attractive image. So you’d managers in the police give a bonus if they nominate outstanding local officers for DSI. “
Hans Slaman, director of international security is such an old-agent left in the anti-terror unit. ,, If AT’er I had a great job. I delivered Heineken, secured the Pope and presidents and arrested IRA terrorists. But that work can not keep doing your whole life. I could not sit back as an ordinary agent must regulate traffic in Tytsjerksteradiel, so I resigned. “
In 2008, faced the anti-terror unit with an acute shortage of staff. Potential top military and police officers picked when massive, net as Slaman, for a better-paying job outside government.
The Special Intervention Service was founded in 2006 after a chaotic arrest of members of the Hofstad group in The Hague end of 2004. On the first attempt the terror suspects in counting members of the AT were seriously injured by a hand grenade. Eventually tore special army units to strike the terrorists in shackles. Police and army work since the establishment of the DSI closely.
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