House of Representatives angry over many dropped criminal cases, but solution is nowhere near

• John Jonker

  political journalist

• Remco Andringa

  Police and Justice publisher

Suspects going free because courts and prosecutors are understaffed: what happened today in Haarlem with 82 suspects, and it wasn’t the first time. The victims, MPs and the police are frustrated by this, but according to the organizations involved, a quick solution is not possible.

In Haarlem, these are older businesses that have been locked down due to crowds. “Because other issues were given priority,” prosecutor Marlien van Hulsel explained this morning.

And to make room for “more pressing matters” amid all the hoopla, the prosecutor today asked the court to drop those old cases. “The cases that are certainly not on the agenda today are serious violent crimes and sexual offences”, the public prosecutor tried to reassure those present at the hearing. “What matters are: the simple assault, the simple theft, the insult, the threat, but also cases of soft drugs and cases of trafficking”.

Yet many MPs are not reassured, according to a tour of the NOS. They find it indigestible for such things to be cancelled. They were quite saddened that in the summer 1500 cases in Gelderland had suddenly been canceled due to staff shortages and more recently more than 50 cases in The Hague.

“A very worrying development,” said Songül Mutluer, a PvdA deputy, who fears for trust in the rule of law. VVD deputy Michon thinks it is “terrible”. He underlines that, according to her, these are not trivial things and that the police have worked hard in the preparation: “This enormously demotivates the officers”.

Some members of parliament believe extra money should be spent on criminal justice, but nearly all say the management of both the prosecutor’s office and the judiciary need to improve to prevent cases from being dismissed. “It’s not just a question of money, it’s also a question of good organization,” says CDA deputy Raymond Knops.

“A trend is starting to emerge,” says a spokesperson for Victim Support Netherlands of the many criminal cases closed this year. The organization stresses that these are not victimless crimes.

The police have put a lot of effort into preparing for court cases. And if a case is dropped, it’s frustrating, the police admit. “But above all for the victims”, underlines Martine Vis of the State Police. As a solution, she thinks of fewer complaints, because many of them now “hide” the chain of criminal justice. It is obviously up to the victims to decide whether to report the crime, she says, but people could more often opt for a mediation process, for example.

A solution to this problem is not close, according to the reactions of the Public Prosecutor and the Council of Justice. The prosecutor is currently short of 104 full-time prosecutors. The money has now been allocated by the Cabinet to hire and train people. However, writes the Public Prosecutor: “This will initially entail an additional burden for the organization”. Because those newcomers have limited employability and need to be supervised by experienced colleagues, who are already so busy.

“Over the past decade, the criminal justice chain has been significantly reduced,” the Judicial Council said in a response. “For several years, this has led to serious legal and procedural problems and a high workload for all the people who work in the supply chain”.

The Council has brought this to the attention of politicians on several occasions. “In the meantime, more money has been promised, among other things to hire more judges. The recruitment and training of these judges has started. The number of trainee judges has been expanded from 80 to 130 per year, but this solves the short-term problems”.

For the moment, therefore, difficult choices still remain to be made: which criminal cases will be dealt with and which will not? “The Ministry of Justice and Security deeply regrets that the old cases have been dismissed or declared inadmissible,” the department said in response to the cancellation of the cases. “If cases are left behind due to lack of capacity, it’s very frustrating. Especially for the victims in these cases.”

The ministry also points to the money now available, which according to the prosecutor and the judiciary will not solve the problems in the short term. The ministry says about the investment: “The aim of these measures is that in the future the resolution of large-scale cases, such as earlier this year in Gelderland, will no longer be a problem.”