page_title: Law enforcement in the Netherlands
section_title: Regional units
hierarchical_section_title: Law enforcement in the Netherlands / Organization / Regional units
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Politie Nederland nieuwe uniform
context_page_description: Law enforcement in the Netherlands is provided by the National Police Corps, divided in ten regional units and a central unit, and the Royal Marechaussee, a gendarmerie. Law enforcement in the Netherlands operates primarily through governmental police agencies. The law-enforcement purposes of these agencies are the investigation of suspected criminal activity, referral of the results of investigations to the courts, and the temporary detention of suspected criminals pending judicial action. Law enforcement agencies, to varying degrees at different levels of government and in different agencies, are also commonly charged with the responsibilities of deterring criminal activity and preventing the successful commission of crimes in progress. The police commissioner in the Netherlands is Erik Akerboom since March 1, 2016.
  Besides police officers, the Netherlands has about 23,500 peace officers. These officers have a Special Enforcement Officer status or BOA/Handhaving in Dutch and therefore have police powers. They can be found within the transport police, game wardens and local enforcement agencies.
context_section_description: Every  regionale eenheid (regional unit) is led by a unitchef (unit chief), a Hoofdcommissaris (Chief Commissioner) who conducts the day-to-day police force management. Decisions about the principal law enforcement policies are made by a regional board, the so-called Driehoek (triangle) whose chairman is the eenheidsbeheerder (unit manager). The eenheidsbeheerder is usually the mayor of the largest municipality in the region. The other board members of the Driehoek are the unit chief and the local chief prosecutor.
  A region consists of several districts, each having a district chief. Each district consists of a number of local units, called basiseenheden (basic units) or teams.
  The "police strength", the number of constables and other police employees in a region is determined by the number of inhabitants and the amount of crime in the region. So the smallest force counts about 300 police officers, while the largest one counts more than 5,000 police employees. There are about 55,000 police employees serving in the Netherlands.
  Selected police officers may also be deployed in a riot police mobile unit. Mobile units are called in to deal with serious public order offences. Each police region has one or more units on stand-by for a total of 45 mobile units nationwide, each of which has about 50 members (including middle-ranking and senior officers). Nine units have also been trained to respond to incidents on maritime vessels. The mobile unit also incorporates plain clothes units known as 'aanhoudingseenheden'. These groups target specific suspects of public order offenses.
caption: Police officers in uniform
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 5D Mark III", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Picasa", "Image DateTime": "2014:06:06 12:25:03", "Image Artist": "Picasa", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Tag 0x1001": "5760", "Image Tag 0x1002": "3840", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "510", "Image SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "Image RecommendedExposureIndex": "100", "Image CustomRendered": "Normal", "Image ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "Image WhiteBalance": "Auto", "Image SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "Image ImageUniqueID": "9e82989d91bb5b745e0a7c10b01c7e23", "Image CameraOwnerName": "", "Image BodySerialNumber": "073024002094", "Image LensSpecification": "[24, 70, 0, 0]", "Image LensModel": "EF24-70mm f/2.8L II USM", "Image LensSerialNumber": "9600002094", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "9084", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7597", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/160", "EXIF FNumber": "63/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:06:06 10:24:12", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:06:06 10:24:12", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "59/8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "43/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "25", "EXIF SubSecTime": "89", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "89", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "89", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "5398", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3478", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1920000/487", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "320000/81", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2"}