Uniforms in the street

The data about the police in neighbourhoods presented in this article come from the  Veiligheidsmonitor Rijk (VMR). This safety monitor is a study by Statistics Netherlands and the ministries of the Interior (BZK) and Justice of the population over 15. Respondents are asked about their feelings of safety, problems in the neighbourhood, if they are the victim of common crime, and the relationship between citizens and the police. The questions are presented in the first three months of each calendar year to about 19 thousand respondents. People with landlines are interviewed by telephone, others have face to face interviews. Institutionalised people are not included in VMR. Because VMR is based on a random sample, there is a certain margin of error in the data presented.

The following questions are asked about police visibility in the neighbourhood:
- How often do you see the police in the street where you live? (possible answers: daily; about once a week; less than once a week; fluctuates greatly)
- Would you like to see the police more often in your street or less? (possible answers: more often; not more, not less often; less often; doesn’t matter)