2023-08-11 09:40:00
With the return of sunny days, the Belgian coast is regarding to be taken by storm this weekend. On the Ostend side, the police will be on the alert in order to best manage the influx of visitors. “The city has 72,000 visitors and this number can triple in summer if we include all tourists and secondary residents,” explains Timmy Van Assche, spokesperson for the Ostend police.
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“During the summer months, we receive a lot of people, which leads to very diverse interventions, ranging from public drunkenness, theft to fights. The summer plan starts mid-June and ends mid-September”, details “On average, the police intervene every 8 minutes. This plan foresees the deployment of the beach police. This is a police service which, together with the beach lifeguards, is stationed in a command center, near the Casino Kursaal. The beach police have a special buggy to facilitate movement on the beach. This post can also quickly receive reports from beach attendants and intervene much more quickly if necessary, unlike the police brigade which must start from the main police station.”
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Last summer, the Ostend police received no less than 10,950 reports in July and August, which resulted in 7,958 interventions. This was around a thousand more than in the summer of 2021. “On the hot weekend of July 8 and 9, when temperatures approached 30 degrees, we carried out 491 interventions. 34 people were arrested for various reasons, including public drunkenness or disturbing public order and various legal offences. Police reinforcements are planned around the station to ensure the proper management of passenger flows. A collaboration takes place with the SNCB when additional trains are added to Ostend”, continues Timmy Van Assèche.
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People who are guilty of repeated incidents are subject to a “deportation measure” aimed at denying them access to the city for a month or risk being arrested or fined. municipal administrative penalty. Four people are currently on this blacklist.
“Downtown, the Hazegras district, parties, events and beach bars are off-limits to them. They are individuals who systematically seek confrontation and cause mayhem. The police services constitute a file on the basis of the interventions. The person concerned can then consult the file and has the right to present a defence. Only then will the ban be notified by the mayor and come into force. A restraining order can be extended twice for a period of one month each time. Currently, four people are subject to such a ban,” he concludes.
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