Affirmative Action in the Dutch Police

Increasing the number of women and minority policemen

The highest principle of Liberalism is the law of non-discrimination. This makes Liberalism a reality denying creed. People are unequal.

This blog previously featured articles "affirmative" hiring of women and minorities by Interior Minister Guusje ter Horst in the "White men rule" and "White men rule 2" miniseries. The goal of the Department of the Interior is to employ 15 percent women and minority candidates by 2010. The Minister of the Interior can not find suitable candidates and as a result she is losing the support of Parliament.

The Amsterdam Police Department (APD)

The scandal is now moving from the ministerial level to the level of high ranking functionaries. The Department of the Interior today made public that the Police Chief of Amsterdam, Bernard Welten (Dutch), had budgetted a sum of 3.2 million Euros to find ten candidates for top positions in the Amsterdam police. That is 320.000 euros per functionary.

And this is at a time when the Department of the Interior is slashing the budget for entry level policemen. Large numbers of people have to enter the police as a significant part of the force is retiring in two years! This economy is meant to cut the budget by 190 million Euros. If all 25 Police Departments would spend 3.2 million Euros to recruit Affirmative Action candidates it would cost 80 million euros. That is forty percent of the entry level policemen cut!

The news was picked up by "De Telegraaf" newspaper. The spokeswoman of Bernard Welten (Dutch) quickly came with something of a retraction. The actual amount that will be spend on recruiting the ten candidates will be less than 3.2 million Euros. Which is a liberally vague statement.

What does a 320,000 Euro premium tell us about equality?

Nevertheless the fact that it costs such an amount of money to find these candidates is evidence of how rare these candidates are. PC savvy functionaries are using the funding entrusted to them to buy away candidates before other Police Departments put their hands on them. Rather than using the money to increase the sustainable security of the citizenry.

The Affirmative Action target is unrealistic and crime fighting ought to be far higher on the list of priorities in crime ridden Amsterdam.