'Good policing requires insight into a superdiverse society'

The tragic death of 11-year-old Fabian after a police chase over a scooter in Elisabeth Park, Koekelberg, has left deep scars. Not only for his family and the officers involved, but for society as a whole. The case has become a painful symbol of what can go wrong in the relationship between police and citizens.

In Panopticon, VUB criminologists Tom Van den Broeck and Sofie De Kimpe published a striking editorial. Their message is clear: policing stands at a crossroads, and change is urgently needed.

Sofie De Kimpe

A wider crisis of trust

According to Van den Broeck and De Kimpe, this problem is not unique to policing. Firefighters, paramedics and public transport staff are also increasingly confronted with aggression. Police may be the most visible face of government authority, but the legitimacy of other institutions is also eroding. Citizens expect less and less from the state as a mediator, putting formal social control under pressure.

For years, there have been calls for more community policing: officers present in neighbourhoods, who know local residents, understand challenges, and can build trust. Yet this is too often limited to small-scale projects or temporary campaigns. What is missing is a structural commitment to community-oriented policing.

For the authors, this is not a luxury but a necessity. "Good policing requires insight into the complex and superdiverse society in which it operates. And it requires cooperation with citizens and local partners to be truly effective."

What happened to community policing?

Belgium has introduced programmes on community-oriented policing in the past, but they never became fully integrated within the police force. Initiatives remained fragmented or confined to separate departments, without influencing the whole corps. The result: many isolated projects but little sustainable change.

Van den Broeck and De Kimpe warn that this leads to a double risk: too much focus on short-term interventions and repression on the one hand, or too much emphasis on PR and symbolic gestures on the other. In both cases, the structural gap with citizens remains.

Training as the key

Another weak point is police training. Belgium has been lagging behind for years: too short, too little theoretical grounding, and insufficiently focused on today's required skills. In countries such as Norway and Germany, officers are only deployed after a full bachelor's programme. That produces more professional and better-prepared officers, including in handling diversity.

"The continued refusal to invest in proper police education shows a basic lack of respect for the profession," they argue. "We send officers into the streets with the message 'survive', instead of equipping them with the vital skills they need."

Tom Van den Broeck

Read the full editorial in Panopticon (in Dutch): Panopticon :: Artikel :: We have to talk about (policing) Fabian…