9 February 2010
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Western Europe, bordering on the North Sea, Beetween Belgium and Germany.
The Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy.
Law enforcement is primarly the responsability of the Ducth regular police, organized in 26 regional forces. In addition to the regular police forces, there are special law enforcement agencies for fiscal, military, economic and agricultural offences. The Dutch Police organization consists of 26 police forces, of which 25 forces operates on a regional level. Each regional force is responsible for carrying out police tasks in its designated region. The 26th force, the Netherlands Police Agency (KPLD. Korps Landelijke Politiediensten) is a nationwide agency taht includes police departement for patrolling water, road, air and rail traffic, as well as the diplomatic and royal security forces. The KPLD also provides criminal intelligence, specialist Investigation expertise and crime analysis on a national level, and is responsible for dealing with international requests for mutual assitance. The International Police Services of the Netherlands Police Agency integrates the activities of: Interpol, Europol, The SIRENE bureau, the translation departement, Dutch liaison officers abroad and contacts with foreign liaison officers.
International investigations can be executed by the regional police forces, the royal marechaussee and special investigation services. Eight regional centres (IRCs) coordinate the flow of the international requests for mutual assistance and rogatory letters that are intended for, or originate from, the 25 police regions. The IRCs are made up of members of the police force and representatives of the public prosecution service.There is one national IRC within the National Police Agency. This too is a cooperative body involving several authorities including the national public prosecution service and the special investigation services. the IRCs form the focus point for the Dutch NCB.
The powers of the authority in question depend on the circumstances of the individual case (whether the criminal is caught red-handed, the seriousness of the offence, etc.). 'Court' is (also) taken to mean the examining magistrate. In the Netherlands, during the course of an investigation the supervisory judge has various powers which are not open to the court in handling a criminal case.
The judiciary is made up of the cantonal courts, the district courts, the courts of appeal and the Supreme Court. The cantonal courts only deals with summary offences. The district court pass initial sentence on indictable offences, and function as acourt of appeal with relation to summary offences. The courts of appeal review sentences relating to indictable offences, and the Supreme Court passes sentence in cassation. The Public Prosecution Service is independent of the judiciary and falls under the authority of the Minister of Justice.The Council of Procureurs-General heads the Public Prosecution Service and deals with policy matters such as establishing a uniform prosecution policy throughout the Country.The Public Prosecution Service consists of the district public prosecutor's offices, the jurisdictional public prosecutor's offices, and the national public prosecutor's office. The district public prosecutor's offices are based in the vicinity of the district courts, and the jurisdictional public prosecutor's offices in the vicinity of the courts of appeal. The national public prosecutor's office has the task of investigating and prosecuting large-scale organized crime and certain offences of an international nature.
Legal or judicial assistance will be offered in cases where the applicant country has instituted an investigation. In accordance with the second paragraph of section 552i of the Dutch Code of Criminal Procedure, the police may deal independently with a request for legal assistance which involves only the provision of information, as long as the acquisition of such information does not require the deployment of special powers of investigation.
Information on liaison officers posted abroad and foreign liaison offices posted in the Netherlands can be obtained through the NCB.
4.3.1 liaison officers posted abroad 4.3.2 Foreign liaison officers posted
The Customs Service is charged with ensuring compliance with import and export regulations and excise regulations, and is authorized to carry out checks for this purpose. The violation of theses regulations may be punished with an administrative fine, and may, in some cases, result in criminal prosecution. Cooperation between the police and the Customs Service is structured by means of agreements. The provision of police information to the Customs Service is subject to conditions.
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