Police warn about capacity surrounding next year’s Nato summit

Dutch police chiefs have written to the country’s mayors urging them not to approve any events for three days in July next year – because the Netherlands is hosting the Nato summit.

The three-day event from July 24 to July 26 will require so much police capacity that there will be no-one left to deal with other events, police chiefs say. Police leave during the period is also likely to be restricted.

Preparations for the summit have already begun. “We don’t just need more capacity during the summit,” police chief Willem Woelders said. “It will be needed before the summit, in connection with the build-up. In addition, some of the work done by police officers deployed at the summit itself will have to be picked up by others.”

In total, 150 ministers and 6,000 delegation members will come to the Netherlands for the event and will also need to be escorted from the airport to their hotel, and to and from the summit venue.

“This will be the largest security operation ever to take place in the Netherlands,” Woelders said. “Everyone is going to notice it.”