This is evident from the study *Understanding Police Violence: A Quantitative Analysis of Violence by Police Officers in 2019–2023*, conducted by the Police Academy and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU). The study was conducted by Bas Mali, a research scientist in the Knowledge and Research Department at the Police Academy, and Jaap Timmer, a police sociologist at VU Amsterdam, who has been researching issues of danger and violence in police work since 1993.
The police are authorized to use force when necessary, and this is closely monitored by the press, the public, and policymakers. For several years now, the police have been providing annual statistical insights into the use of force in police operations. The study *Understanding Police Violence* provides further analysis of these figures for the period 2019–2023, the trends within them, and their underlying causes.
Further Analysis:
” Since the implementation of the system reform on the use of force, the reporting, recording, assessment, and accountability for police violence have been standardized nationwide. This has resulted in a clearer picture. However, this also raises questions about the significance of rising or falling numbers, the differences between police units, and the extent to which the police organization is learning from the use of force. The increase in police violence appears to be partly linked to a larger number of officers reporting incidents of violence each year. A significant portion of the rise in numbers should therefore be understood as a registration effect: since 2019, the police have gained a better and more comprehensive understanding of their own use of force.
In addition, police work on the streets is changing. For example, an increasing proportion of all arrests involves the use of force. In particular, incidents involving resistance, insults, threats, or violence by citizens against police officers show an increased likelihood of police use of force. At the same time, incidents involving individuals exhibiting unexplained behavior are occurring more frequently, and the likelihood of police violence has also increased in these cases. In more than one in three incidents involving police violence, an individual exhibiting unexplained behavior is involved.
Nature of Police Violence
As for the nature of police violence, physical violence remains the most common form. However, physical violence is gradually giving way to the use of force. It is notable that the “other” category has more than doubled since 2019. This study shows that this category largely involves violence against property, such as windows, doors, and animals. This, too, points to a reporting effect: actions that officers previously rarely reported as violence are now being documented more frequently and consistently.
Handling of Violence Reports
Since 2019, the process of reporting, recording, and assessing police violence has been standardized nationwide. Violence is reported to the assistant public prosecutor (hOvJ). The hOvJ creates a formal violence record if the injury is more than minor, a firearm was used, or if, in the hOvJ’s judgment, the violence warrants special attention. The remaining cases are recorded in a simpler violence report. The police chief assesses the violence described in each violence record, with advice from the Commission on the Use of Force.
This study shows that this internal process of recording and assessment requires improvements. Violence reports contain virtually no information about the injuries sustained. Furthermore, a substantial portion of the violence records are not processed (in a timely manner). This limits the ability to conduct reliable analyses and to learn from incidents of violence. This is unfortunate because in 2024, 19.5% of violence reports were assessed as partially or entirely negative; in 2019, this figure was still 9.4%. In addition to accountability, one of the goals of this internal process is for the police to learn from real-world experiences with violence, and this objective is therefore not being sufficiently achieved.
