The Dutch labour inspectorate has imposed fines on a large number of the country’s police forces for failing to implement measures intended to protect officers against aggression and violence.

Many officers work excessively long shifts without sufficient time to recuperate between shifts, which can lead to exhaustion and reduced alertness.

These are conclusions drawn by a labour inspectorate report published on Monday. The inspectorate conducted a series of inspections last year to see whether measures aimed at improving working conditions, agreed following an earlier series of inspections in 2009, had been implemented.

The inspectorate says there had been some improvement, with more attention being paid to working hours and more being done to prevent aggression and violence, but inspectors found all the police forces inspected were still violating the rules.

Most of the violations involve insufficient rest and shifts in excess of 12 hours. Police officers still receive inadequate training on how to deal with aggression and violence.

(gsh/imm)

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