Brussels Residents Are More Often Confronted With Road Rage And Drug Nuisance

There are problems that citizens in Brussels have to deal with more than in the rest of the country, such as drug nuisance and road rage. This is evident from the analysis of the tenth edition of the Security Monitor, a large-scale population study.

The Security Monitor 2021 is an investigation by the federal police in collaboration with the local police, the federal public service Home Affairs and local authorities. Almost 400,000 Belgians received the questionnaire, a quarter completed it. The survey is about neighborhood problems, feelings of insecurity and police work.

Traffic Nuisance

The main neighborhood problems are related to traffic nuisance. It is striking that, according to citizens, aggressive traffic behavior in Brussels causes more nuisance than in the other regions. This concerns 38 percent of Flemish people who are disturbed by it, compared to 57 percent in Wallonia and 60 percent in Brussels.

Other Problems

Other neighborhood problems include gatherings and drug and alcohol use. 35 percent of the inhabitants of Brussels are disturbed by this. The Brussels figures far exceed those of other major cities: the number of people who were disturbed by alcohol and drug use was much lower in Antwerp, Hainaut and Liège. Drug sales on the street also disturb the inhabitants of Brussels the most.

Both traffic problems and nuisance caused by substance use were on the rise in the period from 2018 to 2021. These elements also contributed to the sense of insecurity reported by the interviewees. The feeling of insecurity has also risen slightly. In 2021, 9 percent of those surveyed said they felt unsafe, 3 percent more than during the previous survey.

A number of important changes have taken place in the period between 2018 and 2021, explains Chief Constable Olivier Slosse of the study’s outcome. The corona crisis is part of that. The police note that both drug users and drug sellers have been given free reign in the public space due to the lack of social control during the lockdown.

Slosse emphasizes that road rage is not a new phenomenon, but may have become more intense in recent years due to changing preferences in terms of mobility. In places where the public space is rearranged, additional conflicts sometimes arise.

This article is originally published on bruzz.be.