Support is not created by repressive action, translated by Cora Westerink
Newspaper Trouw, section “Engagement”, 30 April 2021
Chief of Police interview
Henk van Essen has been the chief of police for one full year, at 1 May, that is tomorrow.
A year that was dominated by corona, and in which there was a risk that the police would too often be pitted against the public in general and individual citizens too often.
text Isabel Baneke and Marco Visser
photo by Phil Nijhuis
He is not fond of interviews, nor of meetings within the small work environment of The Hague. Henk van Essen prefers to listen rather than speak. But he has had to do a lot of talking in the past year. About racism within the police force, about the performance of officers during demonstrations, the enforcement of coronation measures. Today, too, he does not shy away from these difficult subjects.
Exactly one year ago Van Essen became chief of police. In an almost empty headquarters of the National Police in The Hague, he looks back. It was a stormy time when he started. The organization was already struggling to fill the work schedules. And the rise of cybercrime was already posing a challenge when a pandemic broke out as well.
The swirling virus put heavy pressure not only on healthcare, but certainly also on the police, says Van Essen. No applause for them. Sometimes there are flowers and cake, Van Essen notices when he visits agencies around the country. The appreciation moves, him, makes him feel good. The chief of police is, after all, a man of connection.
“What I am committed to is strengthening the relationship between the police and society,” he says. “The trust of the public is a great asset. “Van Essen’s second mission is to make the police gain more self-esteem and appreciation for their work in their own organization. “Not every colleague has enough self confidence the whole time through.”
For the police to be able to further increase security in society, the chief of police reasons, the organization must first ensure that officers feel senang within the walls of the station. “Colleagues must be able to be who they are, feel at home in the agency and above all be attended, to optimize their skills. Utilize the strengths of colleagues, then you will make each other stronger and the results better.”
Pride in the organization, officers who feel safe within the force. And then racist messages appear from a WhatsApp group of Rotterdam officers.
“I am ashamed of that. And I am not alone. Inside and outside the police force something like that hurts. ‘How can that be?” my daughter asked me. ‘I don’t expect this from the police.’ I couldn’t explain it to her. ‘This kind of behavior can’t be accepted, shouldn’t be practiced. This is not my police. Those WhatsApp messages have a negative effect on the trust in our organization.
“During the Black Lives Matter protests, that connection between the public and the police was there. I’m proud that cops stood among the protesters. That is only possible if people respect and trust the police. Unlike in other countries, the demonstrations did not get out of hand in the Netherlands. That wasn’t primarily our credit, it was also the merit of the demonstrators and organizers. But the fact that we also gave expression to article 1 of our constitution I find typical of the Dutch police.”
A few years ago a former police coach said in NRC Handelsblad that within the police informal leadership has emerged. The biggest mouth determines the culture, which is a breeding ground for racism and sexism. Have you encountered this as well?
“There is macho behavior in the police. The biggest mouth is one aspect, but whether that is a decisive aspect, I don’t know. I myself am of the school that craftsmanship and professionalism should be more important to the culture of the organization.
“What is difficult with us, and what we can and should do better, is to give feedback. Colleagues need to address each other more often. Because collegiality is so important in our work, you have to be able to rely on each other in difficult situations, this is sometimes under pressure. People are afraid to speak openly and clearly because of the mutual relationship. They hesitate to call someone to account for something. I want to stimulate giving feedback, it has to become normal for colleagues.
“As a complaints inspector in the 1980s I also noticed that colleagues find it difficult to say sorry. As if that could not be done. That’s how we are allowed to use force. If you have that authority, you should be accountable for it. We can and must be more transparent in this regard.
“We don’t do everything right, we’re not infallible. If we do things wrong once, we have to learn from it and also generously say: it could have been done differently.
“An example is that lady on the Malieveld who almost ended up under a police bus during a demonstration. The police chief of The Hague called her and said sorry. How much effort does that take? On the contrary, it grows when you reflect on your own performance.
That demonstration on the Malieveld was one of the countless demonstrations against the corona policy and the cabinet. Did that discontent surprise you?
“The degree to which social discontent united and strengthened during the corona period did surprise me. In the beginning you still saw something of community spirit. People complied with the measures, healthcare received applause. But with the third wave, the restrictions were long lasting and stricter. Support was waning.
“I have appealed to administrators on several occasions: keep the message consistent. If one political party says the curfew is going away and it remains in force anyway, the debate intensifies in society and enforcers are confronted with it.
“Explain the usefulness of the measures clearly, I argued, and ensure public support. Only then can you start thinking about compliance. Enforcement is the final step. You don’t create public support by repressive action.”
“The declining support base made the work more complicated for us. Especially from January onwards, when the curfew riots began and weekly demonstrations were organized. Weekend after weekend, our colleagues had to work. I am proud that the colleagues are still there. Our absenteeism rate has dropped this year, if you think about it. And what’s more, according to the latest statistics from the Central Bureau of Statistics, trust in the police has increased again, even though it was already high. So we haven’t come face to face with citizens too often.”
From society and politics there are regular calls for a tough approach to the rioters. How do you see the balance between connection and repression?
“One of my one-liners is: we are a police that serves society. Who likes to be for, between and beside the citizens, not too often opposite. But there have been a number of times when that has had to be done in the past year, at the curfew riots for example.
“Restraint is one of our tasks. If someone wants to use violence, we step forward. That’s why we acted against protesters who had prepared for a confrontation, who were wearing protective gear and carrying weapons. Then everyone can expect us to take repressive action. It would be something if the law of the jungle applied. We left the rest of the protesters alone as much as possible.”
The curfew is gone, vaccination is gaining steam. What’s on your priority list for the coming year?
“At the top is our visibility in the neighborhood. Especially in the basic teams, our capacity is now under pressure. But protecting citizens starts with prevention. The big criminals of the future are the little street urchins of today, you have to keep an eye on them. To do that, you need a police force that is anchored in the neighborhood and builds networks.
“People want to know the neighborhood cop, and they need to be able to recognize themselves in the police. With that, diversity, inclusion, is absolutely necessary. We are aiming for many more new police officers in the Randstad to have a non-Western immigrant background in the next five years.
“The second point is digitization. The distinction between the physical and online world is blurring and we have to keep up with this development, both in terms of our work processes and crime. Cybercrime is growing and growing, increased by 127 percent last year. Dealing with it requires different skills from the police. We need to train and hire people for that, we have a leg to stand on.
“If I have to narrow my desires down to three things, I have to choose between subversion or creating a safe environment for our people. And then I choose the latter. That colleagues are not only proud of their profession, but also of the organization, that we bring people in and keep them in.”
Your predecessor found his task to be extremely difficult and called it quits after less than four years. How long will you remain in charge?
“I’ll keep doing this as long as I add value, am effective and achieve what I want to achieve. And as long as I enjoy it and get satisfaction from the work. I’m not committing any time to that.”
Police career
Henk van Essen (Apeldoorn, 1960) has “worn out quite a few black boxes”. After the police academy he started in 1983 at the municipal police in The Hague, where he rose to chief of police. In 2013, the year in which the National Police was rigged, he moved to the national corps leadership. In recent years he was the deputy to Chief of Police Erik Akerboom there, before officially taking over from him on May 1, 2020. Van Essen is married and has two children.
Highlighted line in the text:
‘Cybercrime grows and grows, increased by 127 percent last year’
