Nuisance on the street during corona increased by half

The nuisance on the street has increased sharply in the past two years during the corona pandemic. The police have been called out 536,747 times in the past year for nuisance among young people, confused persons and the homeless, noise pollution and public intoxication. In 2019 this was 366,809 times. This is evident from figures from the National Police.

Nuisance on the street has been increasing for ten years, usually by about 4 to 5 percent, but since the corona pandemic, the number of incidents has increased by almost half. The strongest increase is among young people. The police figures do not show what the nuisance is.

Especially in the Randstad, the police have their hands full with young people. According to Femke Kaulingfreks, lecturer in youth and society at the Inholland University of Applied Sciences in Amsterdam, “often large, less wealthy families live in small flats on top of each other’s lips”. During lockdowns, schools and community centers largely closed their doors and young people visited each other in the street, she says.

During the corona pandemic, young people in other provinces and in smaller municipalities are also more likely to seek each other out in the streets, says Kaulingfreks. Because neighborhood cafes, youth centers and sports clubs in “Urk, the BibleBelt and Southeast Groningen” have been closed several times for extended periods, young people end up on the streets, says Kaulingfreks. Normally, an adult keeps an eye on the football club, for example, on the street there is no such form of supervision and the boundaries are further explored. For example, according to Kaulingfreks, the use of laughing gas among young people has increased during the pandemic. During the curfew, from the end of January to the end of April, the nuisance among young people decreased slightly, but was still significantly higher than the same period in previous years.

Young people who hang out on the street a lot support each other, says the youth lecturer, but are less likely to build a network. The street feels familiar, she says, but in a community center or on a school trip, they get to know people they might not normally have contact with. “That is good for broadening their horizons.”