Police: criminal investigation choices

Criminal investigations are a key factor to ensure the safety of citizens and businesses and combat subversion of the rule of law. Investigation is one of the police’s most important statutory tasks. Some €8 billion has been budgeted for the police to carry out investigations and their other tasks in 2025. Police capacity, however, sets limits on investigations.

In practice, the police have to make choices on the use of personnel and resources. The Netherlands Court of Audit expects the police’s choices to take account of the impact of criminality on society.

What are we auditing?

The audit is constructed along the following main lines:

• Cost per police task in 2023 and 2024: besides criminal investigations, the police are also tasked with maintaining public order, assisting people in need and other law enforcement duties. We will calculate the cost of each statutory task. We sent a letter on the cost of police tasks (Dutch only) to the House of Representatives in November 2024. 
• Current investigation choices: we will determine whether the current policy allows the police to choose between different types of crime and the perpetrators they investigate and how the choices are made in practice.
• Future investigation choices: we will investigate whether future police choices will take account of the negative social outcomes of criminality. We will ask whether the Crime Harm Index would be a useful tool and map out the consequences for the police budget and police capacity.

Why are we carrying out this audit?

We want the audit to provide an insight into how much money the police spend and how much capacity they apply for investigations. We will also determine the effect that police investigation choices have on society. We will take account of the various responsibilities for the deployment of the police and the policy under which they fulfil their duties.

Do you want to take part in this audit?

The Court of Audit invites you to share any information you may have that would benefit our audit. We appreciate all contributions, knowledge and experience you may care to share with us on this topic. Simply send an email to bijdrage@rekenkamer.nl.

We read all emails carefully and treat them in confidence. However, we are not able to reply to every contribution we receive.