Residents feel harassed by municipal checks
image: Kyan Tijhuis on Unsplash
Residents in a disadvantaged neighbourhood in the Dutch town Zaandam are living in fear and feel intimidated by the municipality’s methods to tackle subversive crime. Fatma Çapkurt, Assistant Professor in constitutional and administrative law, spoke to NRC and Follow The Money.
By tackling subversive crime, the municipality wants to fight crime and improve residents’ future prospects. Subversive crime occurs when crime uses and influences society, for example by blending illicit operations with legitimate enterprises. The Zaanstad municipality defends what it considers to be successful methods in tackling this type of crime, where the motto 'the end justifies the means' seems to apply. However, a group of residents has serious doubts and feels that ethnic profiling is involved. The municipality denies this and says it is acting 'on the basis of behaviour and concrete signals and not on the basis of a person’s background.'
Extensive data exchange between public authorities is an important instrument in the strategy to tackle this form of crime. 'Of course, the government must be able to combat fraud and crime, but citizens also have the right to know how their data is used,' says Çapkurt. Fundamental rights such as equal treatment and the right to respect for private life must be taken into account. The assistant professor adds that the blurring of the boundaries between criminal law and administrative law seems to be playing a role in Zaandam. The fight against subversive crime is increasingly showing a shift from criminal law to administrative law. As a result, local authorities are given more powers, while the protection of citizens seems to be less guaranteed.
In the neighbourhood Poelenburg in the east of Zaandam, Çapkurt sees a discrepancy between the intentions of the policy and how this works out in practice. Methods used include entering homes without permission and following people. The municipality stresses that the work is carried out properly and that criminals are being caught. 'In reality, however, it has little to do with assistance or services. It's actually more: we're going to catch these people. That, combined with the increased use of surveillance, is a very dangerous cocktail.'
More information?
Read the full article in NRC newspaper and on investigative journalism platform FTM (€, in Dutch)