Author(s)

ARNE DE BOECK, GENSERIK RENIERS, MARC COOLS, MARLEEN EASTON & EVELIEN VAN DEN HERREWEGEN

Abstract

The Port of Antwerp is the second largest harbor in Europe. Security and policing activities within the port area are frequent, diversified and involve many different actors (federal and local goverments, law enforcement agencies, emergency services etc.). To make security measures work, it is not only important that responsibilities and competences of these actors are unambiguously fixed but also that there is sufficient cooperation and coordination among them. In this article we extensively analyze existing policy arrangements within the Port of Antwerp region for four security phenomena, that is, port-related crime, threats, emergency situations and events and incidents. To this end, we developed an innovative assessment scheme to analyze and evaluate multi-actor collaborations. Based on extensive in-depth interviewing and actors’ perceptions and points of consideration, in combination with state-ofthe-art insights described in literature, we formulate recommendations on how to improve the present security arrangements situation, within current limitations (short-term), as well as thinking out of the box (long-term).

Keywords

Port security, qualitative research, emergency management, crime investigation, threat assessment, event management, policing