A recent study conducted by the General Police Inspectorate (IGP) at the request of Minister for Home Affairs Léon Gloden set out to determine whether violence against police officers is on the rise in Luxembourg. The results were presented on Wednesday afternoon to the relevant parliamentary committee, and the answer is a mixed one.
The figures and the officers' own perception reveal a discrepancy: In purely statistical terms, the number of acts involving assault, resistance, or refusal to cooperate has not risen beyond the increase in the resident population over the same period. However, a large majority of the nearly 400 police officers surveyed believe that the relationship between the police and the public has generally deteriorated over the past five years, and that violence has increased.
Pascal Jann from the IGP offers a possible explanation for the discrepancy, pointing to existing police regulations.
"There is a police service regulation which stipulates if an officer becomes the victim of a criminal offence, a different police unit must be called in to take the report, to ensure impartiality. This means that officers sometimes seem to hesitate to call colleagues from another station to come and do that."
Many officers also believe that perpetrators are unlikely to be prosecuted or face consequences. The IGP also examined the judicial follow-up and found that in more than half of the cases, there is no follow-up at all. In instances where one was conducted, it usually resulted in a sanction.
As for the profile of perpetrators, the majority are male, and depending on the offence, non-residents account for between 30 and 50% of incidents. The IGP did not provide further details regarding the nationalities of offenders. This prompted a minor exchange in which Minister Gloden accused Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR) MP Tom Weidig of making far-right remarks, to which Weidig responded by accusing the minister of adopting far-left positions.
The IGP suggests that penalties for violence against police officers be partially increased and that officers be better informed of their entitlement to legal support.
