Speaking in an interview with VRT News on Friday morning the Chief Commissioner of the Brussels-Capital-Elsene Local Police Service Michel Goovaerts say that the arrest of the policeman that was driving the car involved in a fatal collision that resulted in the death of an 11-year-old boy "has hit hard in the force". Chief Commissioner Michel Goovaerts’ officers will be in charge of policing a demonstration by fellow police officers against the arrest that will take place on Friday afternoon.
Police officers to demonstrate against arrest of colleague involved in accidents that resulted in the death of an 11-year-old boy
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The demonstration will be held on the Poelaertplein, the square in front of the Brussels courthouse building. The police officer that has been arrest worked for the Brussels West Local Police Service. but police zone Brussels Capital Ixelles will have to manage the protest. Chief Commissioner Goovaerts says that while some of his officers will be responsible for policing the demonstration he also assumes that other policemen and policewomen that work for the Brussels-Capital-Elsene Local Police Service will take part in the demonstration along with officers from other local police services.
He told VRT Radio 1’s morning news and current affairs programme ‘De ochtend’ that he understands the indignation among his colleagues. "Nobody wanted the death of little Fabian. People sometimes forget that we are also mums and dads."
The fact that the officer driving the police car has been electronically has hit his colleagues hard. "This didn’t go down well in the force. Those people were doing their job. They may have been careless, but the arrest was a big surprise. Among our colleagues the prevailing feeling is “This could have happened to me too."
Mr Goovaerts says that he himself was also surprised at the decision to electronically tag the policeman involved in the accident. “In my many years of experience I haven’t often seen someone accused of this type of offence be tagged”.
“Every confidence in the authorities"
The police unions fear the arrest is "based on media and populist pressure". However, Chief Commissionerr Goovaerts does not want to point any fingers. "We still have full confidence in the authorities, both in Justice and Comité P (the police monitoring committee. Those people must be able to do their work completly independently. We are convinced that this is what will happen here"
The Brussels police chief fears that what has happened could deter people from joining the police or make existing police officers give up. "Our people work in difficult conditions. We have had to deal with police bashing for years and I notice a certain resignation especially among those in the front line. I fear that people will say I don’t need this anymore."