Vervoort again shows little ambition with a common central purchasing body for police districts

The Minister-President of the Brussels-Capital Region has been responsible for coordinating security policy since 2014. Since then, one task in the Minister-President’s hands is the establishment of a common central purchasing body for police districts. This means that all police districts can purchase goods or services centrally to obtain better prices and to acquire the same equipment.

No body cams through the common central purchasing body

“After years of insistence by the N-VA, the central purchasing body will finally be operational in 2021, no less than seven (!) years after the announcement. This Regional service does not exude ambition, because the central purchasing body will only have launched five public contracts by the end of 2021. The e-catalogue is not yet operational, so it is still unclear what purchases will be involved. But I have already found out that body cams will not be included. So each district will have to make this purchase separately. Nevertheless, all parties around the table agree that body cams improve the operation of our police in Brussels,” Brussels MP Mathias Vanden Borre says.

Brusafe: one of the most expensive police schools in Europe, but no shooting range

Another of Rudi Vervoort’s striking mistakes has to do with the Regional and Intercommunal Police College (Gewestelijke en Intercommunale Politieschool, GIP/ERIP), where Rudi Vervoort has been the chairman of the board of directors for years. “The security services have been asking for a new shooting range and better premises for self-defence training for years. Currently, they always have to improvise ad hoc. You would think that this would be the first priority for the new Brusafe Regional College for Security, Prevention and Rescue Professions, a project that has already received more than EUR 17.2 million, but which is still in the starting blocks. But no. The City of Brussels (police district of Brussels-Capital - Elsene) will set up a shooting range and premises at the Béjarlaan in Neder-Over-Heembeek for EUR 5 million on its own initiative, on a site owned by the Region! While the Brusafe Regional College located on the Blue Star site in Haren will not have one. Incomprehensible. Brusafe will be one of the most expensive police colleges in Europe, but does not have its own shooting range or decent training rooms. Why are there so many strange real estate constructions in Brussels?” Mathias Vanden Borre wonders.