Member(s) of Government responsible for this response
Rudi Vervoort
Minister-President of the Government of the Brussels-Capital Region, responsible for Urban Development and urban renewal, Tourism, the Promotion of the Image of Brussels and Bicultural issues of regional importance
Nawal Ben Hamou
Secretary of State of the Brussels-Capital Region, responsible for Housing and Equal opportunities
Response
We support parts of this proposal
and we can implement them.
Explanation
The structure and operation of the integrated police (federal police and local police) are governed by federal legislation. Operational management is under the exclusive control of the Ministers of the Interior and Justice as far as the federal police are concerned, and under the exclusive control of the municipalities (mayors and police council) as far as the local police are concerned. The Brussels Region has no supervisory powers over the security services and therefore cannot influence how the police operate.
However, since the 6th state reform, the Region has been responsible for coordinating security policy in the Brussels Region. This is reflected in the implementation of a four-year plan, the Global Security and Prevention Plan, which gathers 14 priorities, each benefiting from actions directly funded by the Region or supported by the regional administrations in their regular work. The plan is implemented by an administration overseen by the Minister-President, safe.brussels, and monitored by the CoReS (Regional Security Council), which includes the Minister-President, the Chief Official, the 19 mayors, the 6 police zones and the Public Prosecutor.
Of the 60 or so measures developed, we specifically mention those aimed at :
- improving the organisation of public spaces, in particular with the creation of two ‘Security by Design’ guides, which have been used for the redevelopment of the Schuman roundabout, the vicinity of schools and the improvement of public lighting;
- increasing the expertise and technical resources of police forces by providing them with a regional cyber centre equipped with the latest technologies;
- organising training in the Brussels Police Academy aimed at combating prejudice, racism and discrimination.
As part of the Secretary of State’s Equal Opportunities competence, several actions in the Brussels Plan to combat violence against women relate to public spaces and the desire to make them safer for women. Equal.brussels is involved as a partner in several actions, in particular the setting up of a training module on the fight against sexist harassment in public spaces, or paying particular attention to harassment and violence in public spaces in the “Security By Design” guide. In addition, last November, the secretary of state and the prime minister launched a ‘Join the fam’ campaign to raise awareness of the fight against harassment in public spaces and sexual violence in nightlife. The target audience of this campaign are witnesses of such violence. The campaign aims to publicise the 5D method, a method that teaches how to react as a bystander.
Another action, implemented by Bruxelles Pouvoirs Locaux, concerns a training course on gender and the city, intended for municipal staff. This training allows municipalities to take gender into account when designing public spaces, making urban planning policies more accessible and inclusive for all.