Bill tightening community service ban enters consultation phase
Enforcement officers and emergency workers must be able to do their work safely and unhindered and it is unacceptable if they face aggression and violence while doing so because they do not have the option of retreating if they face violence in the line of duty. This means that community service is not an appropriate punishment for an assault against individuals who are responsible for providing emergency assistance or effectively enforcing the rule of law. The Minister of Justice and Security is therefore consulting on an amendment to the Dutch Criminal Code (Wetboek van Strafrecht) to expand and tighten the community service ban when it comes to a number of issues identified in legal practice. The government recognises the dilemmas involved in defining the affected groups. For instance, a distinction could be made between emergency workers and investigating officers. For that reason the government is explicitly inviting everyone to submit views on the scope of the ban during this consultation round.
The proposal is to make 4 changes to the community service ban:
- The community service ban is to be extended to include assaults on law enforcement officers and emergency workers who are responsible for providing emergency assistance or effectively enforcing the rule of law. These individuals operate on the front line and cannot retreat when faced with violence, as that could endanger the health and safety of others. Consequently, any perpetrator who commits such an assault should be held even more stringently to account then a perpetrator of similar violence against other individuals.
- The law will explicitly state that a fine cannot be imposed either in situations in which the community service ban is applicable, thereby removing any ambiguity that might exist in practice in this regard.
- A hardship clause is to be introduced that allows the court to deviate from the community service ban in exceptional cases, and if there are reasons to do so, in instances of reoffending. Currently, a community service order cannot be imposed on individuals who, within five years of performing community service, are convicted again of a similar crime. This amendment gives the court the option, within strict limits, of imposing a community service order in such situations after all. This hardship clause will only apply to repeat offences relating to relatively lighter crimes, such as stealing a bottle of cola. In the future the community service ban will still continue to apply in the case of serious violent crime and sex offences.
- It is to become possible to impose a community service order if it is combined with a fully or partly suspended prison sentence. Currently, under the community service ban, community service can only be combined with an entirely unconditional prison sentence. This amendment will give the court more options when it comes to imposing tailor-made sentences in individual cases. In some instances the imposition of a longer suspended prison sentence (for example in the form of an exclusion order or restraining order), in combination with a community service order, is more sensible than an unconditional prison sentence of, say, a single day combined with community service. Needless to say, it will continue to be impossible to impose a mere community service order in these instances.
As Minister Van Weel explains, “There have been cases of ambulance crews being pelted with fireworks and policemen getting stones thrown at their heads and it is absolutely unacceptable that these individuals face being assaulted when they are working to protect the safety and health of us all. Community service is not an appropriate punishment for offenders guilty of this kind of cowardly crime. Extending the community service ban underlines the criminal law standard that assaulting emergency workers and law enforcement officers is unacceptable."
Current community service ban
The Dutch Criminal Code currently states that the court may not impose community service for certain offences, except in combination with an unconditional prison sentence. This is referred to as the ‘community service ban’ and it applies, for example, in the event of a crime being perpetrated which is punishable by imprisonment for 6 years or more and the violence resulted in a serious violation of the victim's physical integrity, such as arson, assault with serious injury and murder. The community service ban was introduced because community service is not considered an appropriate punishment for this type of offence.