Dossier: deaths in police custody

Controle Alt Delete monitors how many deaths occur during or following contact with law enforcement. This includes deaths during arrests, transport and custody. It does not necessarily follow that all of these deaths are the result of negligence on the part of law enforcement. However, it does mean that people have passed away during or following an arrest, necessitating thorough investigation in order to prevent this from happening in the future.

Three different sources have been used for this overview of fatal incidents: the registrations of Controle Alt Delete (since 2016), annual reports of the Public Prosecution Service (since 2021) and research into fatal incidents by Bureau Beke (2016-2020).

Controle Alt Delete

Since 2016, Controle Alt Delete has been monitoring how many people die during or after an arrest to gain insight into all deaths in fatal incidents. We do this by intensively following media reports, police reports and press releases from the Public Prosecution Service. In addition, Controle Alt Delete also records - as far as is publicly known - the background of the deceased, the migration background, any 'confused' behavior, death by police bullet or otherwise, prosecution involved law enforcement and city of death.

Public Prosecution Service

The National Criminal Investigation Department investigates fatal incidents. The National Investigation Department works on behalf of and under the responsibility of the Public Prosecution Service. Not all fatal incidents are investigated, Controle Alt Delete documented several cases that were not investigated by the National Investigation Department. Sometimes the Public Prosecution Service publishes a press release when the investigation has been completed, but often not. Twice a year, the Public Prosecution Service publishes an overview of the total number of investigations into fatal incidents. Until 2020, the Public Prosecution Service only included people who died as a result of a police bullet. Deceased such as Mitch Henriquez, Bekim Hassani and Umaru Sesay, who did not die after a police bullet, did not appear in these publications. The pressure from Controle Alt Delete has contributed to the fact that from 2021 the Public Prosecution Service will provide an annual overview of all investigations that the National Criminal Investigation Department conducts after people have died under the responsibility of law enforcement officers.

Bureau Beke

In 2022, Bureau Beke researchers published a report on fatal incidents in the period from 2016 to 2020. The Public Prosecution Service gave Bureau Beke access to the investigations conducted by the National Criminal Investigation Department. Files of the National Criminal Investigation Department were the only source for this investigation, no use was made of data that Controle Alt Delete had previously collected. As a result, the fatal incidents that were not investigated by the National Criminal Investigation Department were not included in this study.

In the period 2016 to 2023, at least 115 people have died under the responsibility of law enforcement. Some are known to have died under the responsibility of law enforcement officials, with no information about what happened. We explain this below:

- In 2014, the Public Prosecution Service documented 12 cases.

- In 2015, the Public Prosecution Service documented 6 cases.

- In 2016, Bureau Beke documented 9 cases, Controle Alt Delete 10 cases.

- In 2017, Bureau Beke documented 10 cases, Controle Alt Delete 8 cases.

- In 2018, Bureau Beke documented 9 cases, Controle Alt Delete 7 cases.

- In 2019, Bureau Beke documented 10 cases, Controle Alt Delete 11 cases.

- In 2020, Bureau Beke documented 16 cases, Controle Alt Delete also 16 cases.

- In 2021, the Public Prosecution Service documented 13 cases, Controle Alt Delete 6 cases.

- In 2022, the Public Prosecution Service documented 20 cases, Controle Alt Delete 14 cases.

- In 2023, the Public Prosecution Service documented 8 cases, Controle Alt Delete 6 cases.

Below we combine the three sources and gain insight into the total number of deaths per year. This also gives us insight into the number of unknown people:

• In 2014, 12 people died. Controle Alt Delete didn’t monitor fatal incidents yet.

• In 2015, 6 people died. Controle Alt Delete didn’t monitor fatal incidents yet.

• In 2016, 10 people died. All cases that Controle Alt Delete documented were investigated by the National Criminal Investigation Department.

• In 2017, 10 people died, 2 of which are unknown to Controle Alt Delete. All cases that Controle Alt Delete documented were investigated by the National Criminal Investigation Department.

• In 2018, 9 people died, 2 of which are unknown to Controle Alt Delete. All cases that Controle Alt Delete documented were investigated by the National Criminal Investigation Department.

• In 2019, Bureau Beke documented 10 cases, Control Alte Delete 11 cases. However, 3 of the 11 cases that Controle Alt Delete documented were not investigated by the National Criminal Investigation Department. That year, at least 13 people died (10 from Bureau Beke plus 3 from Controle Alt Delete), of which 2 cases (13 minus 11) were unknown to Controle Alt Delete.

• In 2020, Bureau Beke documented 16 cases, Controle Alt Delete also documented 16 cases. Two of the 16 cases that Controle Alt Delete documented were not investigated by the National Criminal Investigation Department. That year, at least 18 people died (16 from Bureau Beke plus 2 from Controle Alt Delete), of which 2 cases (18 minus 16) were unknown to Controle Alt Delete.

• In 2021, 13 people died, 7 of which unknown to Controle Alt Delete. All cases that Controle Alt Delete documented were investigated by the National Criminal Investigation Department.

• In 2022, 20 people died, 6 of which unknown to Controle Alt Delete. Four of the 14 cases that Controle Alt Delete documented were not investigated by the National Criminal Investigation Department. That year, at least 24 people died (20 from the Public Prosecution Service plus 4 from Controle Alt Delete), of which 10 cases (24 minus 14) were unknown to Controle Alt Delete.

• In 2023, 8 people died, 2 of which unknown to Controle Alt Delete. One of the 6 cases that Controle Alt Delete documented was not investigated by the National Criminal Investigation Department. That year, at least 9 people died (8 documented by the Public Prosecution Service plus 1 from Controle Alt Delete), of which 2 cases were unknown to Controle Alt Delete.

In the period 2014 to 2023, at least 123 people died under the responsibility of law enforcement. Other people may also have died during this period under the responsibility of law enforcement, which Controle Alt Delete and the Public Prosecution Service are not aware of. This is possible because not all fatal incidents are investigated by the National Criminal Investigation Department and not all fatal incidents have been reported on in the media.

Of the 105 cases that Controle Alt Delete has documented between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2023, three officers have been prosecuted. The police officer involved in a fatal collision in 2016 has been sentenced to a fine of EUR 500, -. The police officer who was involved in a fatal shooting incident in 2018 is being prosecuted following an Article 12 Sv procedure. The police officer involved in a fatal shooting incident in 2022 was prosecuted by the Public Prosecution Service, and later acquitted of all charges by the court. Also in 2022, a police officer was prosecuted for his involvement in a fatal collision, the officer received a community service sentence of 200 hours. After the death of Mateusz, the eight involved police officers were prosecuted for their involvement.

Of the 105 cases that Controle Alt Delete documented between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2023, 35% of the victims have a migration background, 11% are Dutch-Dutch (no migration background) and in 54% the background is unknown. The latter group has been left out of consideration in the calculation that follows. There are 4.2 million Dutch people with a migration background and 13.2 million Dutch people without a migration background. Among the Dutch with a migration background, 1.3 people died per million inhabitants per year under the responsibility of law enforcement. Among the Dutch without a migration background, 0.1 people died per million inhabitants per year. Dutch people with a migration background thus died 11 times more often under the responsibility of law enforcement than might be expected on the basis of their share in the population.

By comparison, black Americans die 2.5 times more often than white Americans under the responsibility of law enforcement than would be expected based on their share of the population.