National Threat Assessment 2008. Organised Crime - Politie

Scale
For years the Netherlands has been in the top 10 of the least corrupt countries
in the world. This Corruption Perceptions Index is not based on quantitative
data, but on the perception of key figures in the business community and the
government. Obtaining reliable figures about the scale of corruption is extremely
difficult, which was also confirmed in the present research. As with many
criminal phenomena, there is a dark number, as a result of which the actual scale
of the activities remains unknown. It turns out to be difficult to prove any
suspicion of corruption. Many of the cases end in dismissals or acquittals.
Since the first NTA, however, some progress has been made in the records
that are kept. Since 2004 a database has been maintained to record integrity
breaches within the police force: Registratie Interne Onderzoeken (RIO). The
2006 report indicates a total of 1393 investigations, in which 1495 people and
1514 offences were involved. Criminal offences were identified in 180 cases and
dereliction of duty in 507 cases. A total of 110 people were dismissed, 64 people
were conditionally dismissed and 42 people resigned. The RIO database does not
include a separate record of cases connected to organised crime, but there are
a number of categories that could indicate the involvement of organised crime.
One major category is ‘misuse of office’. This applied to 258 of the 1514
offences in 2006 (around 17%). In 53 cases information was leaked to criminals
and 10 cases of bribery were recorded. Bribery is difficult to prove. Out of the
481 cases of integrity breaches ‘relating to a legal status’, 61 were cases of
‘undesirable contacts’.
A total of 345 cases were reported to the National Police Internal Investigations
Department in 2006, 120 of which were taken up. There were 46 corruption
cases. This number is increasing: there were 14 corruption cases in 2005.
It should be noted, however, that this difference is mainly due to a different
recording method, in addition to increased capacity and a different definition.
There is a consensus that more corruption would be discovered if there were
greater investment in investigating corruption. People often have (vague)
suspicions of ‘leaks’, for example, with regard to failed raids and attempted
arrests, whereby the suggestion is that the suspects were aware in advance
and had therefore been tipped off. These suspicions, which are often not
investigated, could be dismissed as rationalisations by police officers trying to
explain setbacks. Sometimes, however, things really do occur in investigations
that can only be explained by leaks, e.g. if documents from an investigation
are found in the possession of criminals, although the trial has not started
yet. The line of reasoning is that these documents could not have come
from the lawyer, so they must have come from the police.
182 National Threat Assessment 2008 – Organised crime