Mayors of Brussels-South communes have called for action against police brutality following the airing of a TV programme showing a police officer assaulting two young people in detention at a station in Anderlecht.
"In addition to being illegal, these acts are indescribable and shocking, particularly for a police officer charged with enforcing the law," Mayors Mariam El Hamidine (Forest), Jean Spinette (Saint-Gilles) and Fabrice Cumps (Anderlecht) said in a joint statement on Thursday.
Wednesday night's edition of the RTBF's programme #Investigation, titled 'Racism in the police, impunity in question' exposed incidents recorded on 31 May 2020 at Anderlecht’s central police station.
Offending police officer sanctioned, but still on duty
The programme, a collaboration between le Soir, Blast and the Belgian public service media, featured two acts of police brutality just hours apart, perpetrated by the same officer.
Although he was sanctioned, the officer involved is still on duty, the RTBF reported.
In the first scene, a young person of foreign origin is violently pushed by the officer into a cell, where he is punched and kneed in the face. Another officer intervenes to end the assault.
The second scene shows the same officer repeatedly punching an undocumented person in the face while handcuffed and sitting on a bench.
These incidents were reported on the same day and an internal inquiry by the police's disciplinary college led to a provisional suspension five days later. Then, on 16 September 2020, the officer was demoted to a lower pay grade.
Mayors call for revised disciplinary procedures
The Brussels Public Prosecutor’s Office also launched an enquiry, as a result of which the officer appeared before the Brussels Criminal Court on 31 October 2022, the mayors recalled. He received a suspended sentence from the court in January 2023.
However, since the assault footage was not previously shown to the police college, the mayors said they would reconsider whether new measures should be taken against the officer.
In general, the acts shown in the documentary call for exemplary handling and total transparency, the mayors said. However, they cautioned that, the essential work performed daily by thousands of other officers should not be tarnished by the deplorable actions of a few.
In February 2021, the police chiefs of the Brussels-South zone and the three mayors had informed Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden that they wanted revisions to the law governing police disciplinary procedures, to make them faster, safer and simpler, to the benefit all parties.
Conviction should lead to dismissal - mayors
This, they said, should enable police colleges to manage disciplinary procedures more effectively.
Furthermore, they insisted that the conviction of a police officer should automatically result in dismissal, adding that the next legislature should take up the issue.
As part of ongoing reforms within the Brussels-South police zone, mayors El Hamidine, Spinette and Cumps have asked Brussels-South Police Chief Jurgen De Landsheer to reorganise the police's internal control services in order to improve procedures and the standards of behaviour expected of all police officers.
Finally, the mayors called for rapid implementation of bodycam reforms decided at the beginning of the present legislature.
