Answers Chamber questions on call by cops to criminalize threatening asking for private information

Question 1

Are you familiar with the article "Police: make threatening requests for private information on the Internet a criminal offense"? (2)

Answer to question 1

Yes.

Question 2

Do you share the view that the sharing of police officers' private data may make it harder for police officers to do their jobs? If not, why not?

Answer to question 2

I share the view that this can have a negative impact on the work of individual police officers and thus on the police as a whole. I strongly disapprove of this type of practice that attempts to intimidate or threaten police officers, as well as all aggression and violence against the police.

Question 3

Do you think there is an effect of the increase in doxing and harassment on recruiting new police officers? If so, how big do you think that effect is?

Answer to question 3

Currently, the supply of people who want to work in the police is unabated.

Question 4

Have the officers who have experienced harassment at the front door filed reports? If so, how many reports have been made and what stage are those reports at?

Answer to question 4

When criminal acts are involved, it is standing policy that employees are encouraged by the police organization to report them. They are supported in various ways to make this as accessible as possible. I cannot comment on individual cases.

Question 5

What are you doing to combat doxing of police officers?

Question 6

Do you share the view of the Police Department to criminalize "threatening solicitation of private information"? If not, why not? If so, how are you responding to this call?

Answer to questions 5 and 6

This is a social problem that I will look at with urgency. As I indicated during the plenary discussion of the bill to strengthen the criminal law approach to undermining crime on May 27 last (3), I will, partly in response to a proposal to that effect by member Michon Derksen (VVD) (4, 5) , submit a bill for consultation before the summer recess that introduces an additional criminalization around the phenomenon of doxing.

Question 7

Are you willing to give additional consideration to doxing police officers in the Internet bullying policy framework? If not, why not?

Answer to question 7

Doxing, like bullying, is a collective term for various punishable, unlawful and undesirable behaviors, which can manifest themselves both online and in the physical world. The Internet bullying policy framework deals with the removal of unlawful content (or having it removed). To the extent that a specific case of doxing also includes unlawful acts, such as publishing personal data without permission, this falls under the Internet bullying policy framework.

(1) Clarification: These questions are supplemented by the questions of Member Ellemeet (GL), submitted April 15, 2021 (question number 2021Z06103)

(2) NOS, April 9, 2021 'Police: make threatening requests for private data on the Internet punishable'

(3) Parliamentary Papers II, 2019/20, 35,564, no. 2

(4) Parliamentary Papers II, 2020/21, 35,564, no. 13.

(5) The motion by Michon-Derksen et al. was adopted by your chamber on June 1.