''Burgernet'' (Citizen Network) is a platform for collaboration between citizens, local government and police aiming to improve neighbourhood security in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. The project was developed in 1993 by a police officer from

Ridderkerk Ridderkerk () is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality had a population of in and covers an area of of which is covered by water. The municipality of Ridderkerk also includes th ...

to help find missing persons and catch criminals with assistance of citizens.

How it works

Citizens register for Burgernet on the Burgernet website by providing their name and address. They are now able to receive Burgernet messages about their neighborhood. Burgernet starts with an

emergency call An emergency telephone number is a number that allows a caller to contact local emergency services for assistance. The emergency number differs from country to country; it is typically a three-digit number so that it can be easily remembered and ...

(for example mugging, burglary or missing person.) If it is possible to compose a distinctive description of the suspect or missing person the police emergency room activates the Burgernet community by sending a text message (

Sms Short Message Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile phones exchange short text messages, t ...

) or spoken message. Burgernet participants in the immediate environment of the crime receive a message with a call to action to look for the

suspect In law enforcement jargon, a suspect is a known person accused or suspected of committing a crime. Police and reporters in the United States often use the word suspect as a jargon when referring to the perpetrator of the offense (perp in dated U. ...

missing person A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as Life, alive or Death, dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accide ...

. They report to the police what they see or recently have seen. The Burgernet system enables attentive participants to report directly to the police operator. This gives the possibility to process real time information quickly. With the information given by the participant the operator directs nearby police units to the missing or suspect person. All participants are informed about the results of the intervention.

History

A test with Burgernet was executed in

Nieuwegein Nieuwegein () is a municipality and city in the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is bordered on the north by the city of Utrecht, the provincial capital. It is separated from Vianen to the south by the river Lek and borders on IJsselstein in the ...

in 2004 and 2005. After extensive research, the test was found successful and extended to 9 municipalities in 2006. In 2009 Dutch government decided Burgernet would be put into service nationwide. In 2012 Burgernet was activated in nearly all of the 400 Dutch communities. More than 1,4 million citizens joined Burgernet (9% of Dutch population). The Burgernet app has been downloaded 240.000 times and the Burgernet messages are embedded in over 30.000

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

timelines (reference date November 2014). On average Burgernet is used in 600 time-critical situations each month (January – August 2014 4.958 actions). 555 were solved thanks to information given by Burgernet participants (11%). Source
Burgernet dashboard

Evolution

Throughout the years the Burgernet system has been constantly improved. Since 2011 the Burgernet messages are automatically transformed into short messages send by

RSS feed RSS ( RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many d ...

to social media. In 2013 the Burgernet app was launched. This application uses the location of the

smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

user to relocate the Burgernet actions which take place in the immediate environment of the user. In 2014 Burgernet was extended with a mail service. Participants receive

e-mail Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...

s related to local security issues such as recently committed burglaries. The local municipality can use the service to inform their citizens about local security issues.

Remarkable

Burgernet was one of the first initiatives Dutch police has taken to actively involve citizens as fully-fledged partners in police operations. The Burgernet colours (Orange and Blue) refers to the participants. A slang word for police is "The Blue". Orange is the official colour of Dutch municipalities.

External links

The officia
Burgernet
site

References

{{Reflist Law enforcement techniques Neighborhood watch organizations