Mayors to be notified when criminals are released

As of September the mayors of 15 Dutch cities will be notified if perpetrators of serious crimes are released into their communities.

For a long time, a man who served jail-time for sexually abusing disabled children was 'stalked' by the Amsterdam police. Officers would stake out his house, call him on the phone and inform his neighbours - all because the man had once again offered his 'services' to facilities for the handicapped. The stalking ended only when the man moved away from Amsterdam.

The Amsterdam case, and a similar one involving a paedophile in Utrecht, led justice minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin to launch a pilot project aimed at informing local authorities about delinquents - especially sex offenders - being released back into society.

Ten to fifteen municipalities will take part in the six-month pilot project, including the major cities Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht. As soon as a prisoner who has been convicted of a serious crime is about to be released, the mayor of his place of residence will receive word. Serious crimes are defined as sex crimes, violent crimes such as murder and manslaughter, and other crimes carrying a minimum sentence of one year.

The justice ministry estimates that 1,750 such prisoners will be released from prison during the pilot project and another 1,500 from forced psychiatric treatment after a conviction. In Amsterdam alone 100 to 150 ex-convicts are expected to be released who "might pose a threat to public safety".

'Might' because not all of them will endanger public safety. So the question is: Who is a threat and who isn't? And who makes the risk analysis?

According to the ministry, the local authorities do, together with the national police. "We are offering a service to the mayors by providing them with the names and additional information","a ministry spokesperson said. "Public safety is a matter for the municipalities. A civil servant there will assess the risk in consultation with the police."

The question is what the mayor can do next. "I hardly dispose of any measures to take," says Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen, who has been a proponent of notifying mayors about soon to be released criminals. "Without a legal framework its is very difficult for a mayor to take action in cases like these."

In the case of the Amsterdam sex offender Cohen used measures usually reserved for terrorists. He was clearly testing the limits of the law. "We need to have a debate about which measures we find acceptable, and then create a legal framework for them," Cohen said.

Such a debate will also have to address the question if, or under which circumstances, a sex offender can be allowed to return to his former place of residence. "I don't have the answers to these questions," said Cohen, "but they will have to be addressed during the pilot project."