The Federal Police is working on a permanent check of all staff members throughout their careers. This should result in a new concrete proposal to Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden (CD&V) this year, most Flemish newspapers report on Monday.
Until now, the integrity of police officers was only checked during recruitment. In 2019, the police inspection service sounded the alarm, speaking out on a “direct threat to democracy”.
Since the beginning of this year, four employees of the Brussels-West police zone have already ended up in prison for integrity violations, including two for having passed on information to criminals.
Security services say the number of criminal infiltrations into police forces is on the rise.
It is not yet known what the extent of this screening will be and whether, for example, it will be possible to access data on the financial transactions and assets of police officers. Negotiations with the unions on this subject promise to be extremely difficult.
