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Composition of the organisation

The Supervisory Body for Police Information Management is a collateral institution of the Federal Parliament. It is vested with extensive supervisory and monitoring powers over the various services and organisations. These powers relate to all the aspects of information management by the aforementioned institutions.

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The Supervisory Body is a small-scale supervisor. It is composed, in principle, of three members-advisers who make up the executive committee (DIRCOM) and who are appointed by Parliament for a term of six years. Their mandate is a full-time one with the result that they no longer form part of their original corps. The COC is chaired by a magistrate and also seats a magistrate from the public prosecutor’s office and one expert. The DIRCOM is currently composed of two members, while awaiting the renewal of the mandates of the DIRCOM members by the parliament.

Its members are:

- President a.i.: Frank Schuermans, magistrate from the public prosecutor’s office;

- Member-adviser a.i.: Ronny Saelens, expert/non-police officer.

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The Supervisory Body also has an investigation department which again numbers three members, two of whom to hail from the police services and a third one to be an expert. They each bear the title of investigating commissioner and are appointed by DIRCOM for a term of six years.

And last but not least, there is the support service which also seats 4 members: one executive assistant, 2 lawyers and one IT specialist. These members too are appointed by DIRCOM.

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With its ten-member structure, the COC is vested with the statutory task of monitoring and supervising the following organisations and services in the vast field of data management and information technology:

  1. The entire integrated police service, i.e., the Federal Police (more than 50 units) and the local police corps (in excess of 180 police zones), or some 240 units in total numbering about 50,000 members of staff;
  2. The General Inspectorate of the Federal and Local Police (AIG);
  3. The Passenger Information Unit (Bel-PIU).