Over 370.000 fines for anti-social behaviour were handed out in the Netherlands in 2013, covering such not-nice behaviour as being a nuisance, public drunkenness, littering, urinating in public, not cleaning up dog faeces, aggressive driving and parking in handicap zones.
The number of some fines decreased slightly, by 3,2 per cent, compared to 2012. Although, because last year’s fines were slightly higher than a year earlier, the total amount collected for hufterig gedrag (loutish behaviour) has increased by 1 per cent to 46,3 million euros.
The research conducted by RTL News based on information from the Centraal Justitieel Incassobureau (Central Justice Collection Agency) on the number of fines issued by Dutch police.
Delft was awarded the dubious honour of being the city where people are most likely to relive themselves in public. With 27 people in 10.000 fined for urinating, Delft scores around 2,5 times higher than the national average.
Groningen and The Hague were also among the highest offenders, with around 23 people in 10.000 receiving a fine. By contrast, in Rotterdam that figure was 20 and in Amsterdam even less: around 16,5.
Of course, foreign tourists charged for public urinating are not counted, while Dutch tourists are counted in their own municipality, meaning these numbers do not necessarily reflect what goes on in the capital city on any given weekend.
Nationwide, the number of fines for urinating rose by 3 per cent to just over 18.000. The euro amount of the fine also grew, by 9 per cent to a total of 2,2 million euros. On average, that meant that each open-air urination cost just over 120 euros.
Most anti-social fines were handed out for loutish behavior in traffic. More than 250.000 in fact, over a third of which were for the inhabitants of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, often for parking on the footpath.
Also, around 25.000 people were fined for parking in handicapped spots: 2.000 in Amsterdam (24 per 10.000) and over 3.000 in both Rotterdam and The Hague (48 and 59 respectively).
By contrast, only 535 fines for parking in a handicapped spot were handed out in Utrecht and even less in Maastricht, with only 200 (both 16 per 10.000).
When it comes to public drunkenness, the numbers are also high, with 25.000 people fined in 2013 across the country.
In this, the capital city is far from being the worst offender. Amsterdam had around 24 fines per 10.000 inhabitants, compared to around 40 per 10.000 in Rotterdam and 60 in The Hague. This is much more than in smaller cities with large student populations: in both Utrecht and Groningen there were 26 fines per 10.000 people.
Where are the most anti-social dog owners in the Netherlands? In Hardenberg in the province of Overijssel, in fact, where a total of 69 penalties were handed out for a sum of 8.645 euros. That's almost 12 penalties per 10.000 inhabitants, four times as much as the national average. It’s also 14 more than were handed out in Amsterdam, which has at least 12 times the population.
In absolute numbers, the most poorly behaved dog owners live in The Hague, where authorities handed out 568 fines totalling more than 70.000 euros. Nationwide, the number of fines for leaving dog poo on the ground grew by 20 per cent to 2.125 in 2013. In total, the state earned 265.000 euros from dog owners, with an average of 125 euros per fine.