NMBS: Police station at Brussels South ‘will be there in the coming weeks’

The plan was put forward last year in response to growing concerns about crime, antisocial behaviour and lack of cleanliness at Brussels South. A task force was put in place to address the issues, with increased police presence among the key recommendations.

Establishing a police station means there will be a continuous police presence during station opening hours and passengers will be able to file complaints directly.

The police station "will be there in the coming weeks”, Dimitri Temmerman, spokesperson for railway company NMBS, told VRT NWS, without specifying a date. The officers who will staff the site have been recruited.

The NMBS still needs a few weeks to complete the necessary works on the site, he said, while the police need a similar amount of time to install security equipment.

“In the neighbourhood around the station we still have security problems,” said Olivier Koeune of the Sint-Gillis Brussels-Zuid neighbourhood committee. “There is 48 hours of calm after every police action, so a permanent police presence is really needed.”

However, he is disappointed that the police station will not be open 24 hours a day. 

When announcing the plan to tackle antisocial behaviour in and around the station, the government also looked to NMBS and infrastructure company Infrabel to provide more camera surveillance. A year later, not much progress has been made on the issue.

“We are looking at how to improve the coverage of some cameras,” Temmerman said, though no new cameras are to be installed. “We also continuously check whether there are any blind spots in the station.”