Belgium empowers security guards

The plan announced on November 26 elaborates significant changes in responsibilities and tasks of security guards. 

The training and employment of security guards will be scrutinized more strictly. 

Security personnel will be empowered to check personal belongings and IDs of individuals suspected of posing a threat to any event or public gathering.

Security guards at military areas, European Parliament buildings, and embassies will be equipped with weapons. 

The empowering of security guards is viewed as necessary when Belgian police are showing signs of being overloaded. 

Vincent Gilles, head of Belgium's main police union, said the police are being deployed excessively. Since a series of terror attacks in Paris last November and in Brussels on March 22, the security alert has been maintained at level 4 or level 3. 

This requires the police to work overtime. The union said the police forces’ overtime this year was 50% higher than last year, and last year it was 30% higher than the previous year. 

The police union is concerned that “lone wolf” terrorists may seize this opportunity to launch attacks.

The Belgian police will hire an additional 1,000 officers. But that may not be enough to ensure public safety.