Should Brussels revive its Koban neighbourhood police units to confront the shootings?

Brussels politicians and police officials are again debating whether to revive specialised neighbourhood brigades in the Brussels-Midi police zone after a summer surge in shootings, although no formal decision to restore the former Silva or Uneus units had been announced by Friday, 4 September. La Dernière Heure reported that supporters believe Brussels might not be facing the same level of violence had the Koban teams been retained.

The argument matters immediately to people living, working or travelling through Anderlecht, Forest and Saint-Gilles, the three municipalities covered by the Midi zone. Brussels recorded 57 shootings during the first seven months of 2026, leaving two people dead and 21 injured, according to federal police figures reported by BX1. By late August, Brussels public prosecutor Julien Moinil said the annual count had reached 69 after six incidents in several days. He warned that any resident could be struck and said investigators believed part of the latest violence in Saint-Gilles and Forest arose from a conflict between two drug-trafficking organisations.

Kobans were small, territorially anchored police teams whose officers developed detailed knowledge of residents, street dealers and recurring trouble spots. The Midi zone previously operated Uneus in Saint-Gilles, Silva in Forest, and Virtus and CPO teams in parts of Anderlecht. Parliamentary evidence says their territories, working methods and financing differed considerably: some officers worked in uniform, others in civilian clothing, and only Uneus had a designated liaison magistrate.

MR politicians including Brussels MP Amin El Boujdaini and party president Georges-Louis Bouchez have argued that dissolving the units in 2021 weakened everyday pressure on street dealing. El Boujdaini called their return a legitimate demand from residents and frontline officers, while Bouchez said the structures could be rebuilt without retaining personnel associated with earlier problems. Their case is that fixed teams accumulate intelligence and relationships which rotating patrols cannot reproduce.

That account is contested. The three Midi-zone mayors previously explained to the federal parliament that drug markets were mobile while the Koban territories were comparatively fixed. On the police chief's proposal, the zone was divided in 2022 into 16 neighbourhoods with permanently assigned inspectors; a further 2025 reform introduced PRIO, a brigade combining proximity, enforcement, intervention and observation. On this view, proximity policing was reorganised rather than simply abandoned.

There is also a civil-rights warning embedded in the history. Uneus faced allegations from young residents and families of racism, humiliation and excessive force. RTBF reported in 2018 that residents sought an evaluation, while brigade officials denied wrongdoing and the alleged abuses described in that report had not been judicially established. Silva later became associated with a criminal case alleging serious investigative misconduct by three officers, accusations the defendants contested. Reviving the names without stronger supervision would therefore carry both operational and public-trust risks.

The broader problem also exceeds the reach of any neighbourhood squad. Moinil says trafficking groups recruit minors through social media and require deeper international cooperation, while Brussels investigators, forensic services, prisons, youth protection and addiction care all face capacity constraints. The federal and regional response announced after the August shootings included 40 additional police officers, 20 mobile cameras, reinforced police-military patrols around stations and a permanent coordination mechanism within safe.brussels.

Brussels is Belgium's capital and hosts the principal EU institutions, but this is fundamentally a city-security question rather than an EU institutional dispute. Its international dimension comes from cross-border drug supply, mobile criminal networks and alleged recruitment in France, not from the presence of the European Commission or Council.

The next test is whether the Midi police board and the mayors of Anderlecht, Forest and Saint-Gilles propose a genuinely new territorial model, additional funding or merely a familiar label. Any credible plan will need measurable objectives, coordination with judicial investigators and safeguards against discriminatory or abusive policing. Until those details appear, the return of Silva and Uneus remains a political proposal, not an established policy.