Police Vehicles in Belgium

Belgian Federal Police BMW R 1100 RT motorcycle (Motorway Police)

Before 2001, there were several police forces in Belgium:

After the reform of 2001, there are only two police forces:

Gendarmerie/Rijkswacht

The Rijkswacht or Gendarmerie used dark blue vehicles in the past. The force changed to another vehicle look in the 1970s, to make their cars more visible:

Some of the most commonly used vehicles:

The patrol minivans were always equipped with Federal Smart Vector lightbars, while the smaller vehicles had basic rotating beacons on their roof. The Gendarmerie/Rijkswacht did use the same type of cars all over the country.

Police Communale/Gemeentelijke Politie

The Municipal Police initially used dark blue vehicles and changed, probably at the same time as the Rijkswacht/Gendarmerie, their vehicle exterior:

The Municipal Police never had a standard police car, in fact all sorts of vehicles were used:

The Belgian government reformed in 2001 all the Belgian police forces into one police force structured on two levels (Local Police and Federal Police, both equal to each other).

Local Police / Lokale Politie / Police Locale

The consequence of the reformation was the usage of all new striping. The exterior of Local Police vehicles:

Belgian Local Police forces use different sorts of police cars. Each zone can choose whether they buy vehicles via the Federal Police or lease/buy vehicles on their own, this leads to a big variety of cars in the fleet (small vehicles, SUV, 4X4, minivans, pickups, sedans, breaks, ...).

Federal Police / Federale Politie / Police Fédérale

Federal Police / Federale Politie / Police Fédérale Highway patrol Volvo V70

The exterior of Federal Police vehicles:

The Federal Police is somewhat more structured in terms of police vehicles, compared to the Local Police.

Motorway Police uses:

The General Reserve (support, riots) has more specialized vehicles:

The Waterway Police:

The Air Support uses:

Other vehicles used:

Car types

There are different types of cars used by the Police in Belgium:

Sirens and lights

In Belgium there are no specific regulations concerning sirens and lights on police vehicles, although the law doesn't allow the use of red lights pointing forwards, therefore all emergency vehicles may only be equipped with blue lights (red lights are allowed on the rear side).

Each police zone or division chooses by itself which type and brand of lights and sirens will be used, although most forces stick to the popular Federal Signal equipment.

Commonly used lightbars:

Communication

In the 80's, the lack of a good working and efficient communication system came very clear when a couple of incidents happened in Belgium (Heizeldrama, for example). Not long after these disasters, a committee was established. Their task was to find a better communication system. Now, since the reformation of the police, more and more police departments switch over to the new communication system called ASTRID (comparable to TETRA). This new technology allows officers to communicate and work in a much better way than in the past, because of the improved voice quality (digital), multiple functions of the system, ability to use MDTs, ... All police vehicles are now equipped with ASTRID.

Footnotes

    External links

    This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/3/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.