Schaarbeek, part of the Belgian capital of Brussels, is currently reorganizing its police force following Japan as a model, an official says.
     ''We try to look all over the world what can serve us to make our own police forces even better,'' official Natalie Andries from Schaarbeek told Kyodo News.
     ''To improve our working method and internal organization, we took Quebec, Canada as an example, and in Japan we were inspired by the 'koban.'''
     With 110,000 inhabitants, Schaarbeek is not only one of the most populated parts of Brussels, it is also representing a dense mix of nationalities which can sometimes lead to violence and criminality.
     To stop these figures from raising, the police decided to put up 'antennas' in the different quarters.
     According to Schaarbeek Mayor Bernard Clerfayt, almost 80 percent of criminal acts in Japan are solved, while in Europe this is only 30 to 35 percent.
     In a pilot project put up in June 2004, he sent out 10 of his police agents to the Brabant-quarter, known for its illegal trading and problems of criminality.
     Results were so positive that it was generally decided to expand the project to other projects.
     ''It is much easier to have contacts with the people in the street when the police are walking around there. Not only can they intervene much quicker, and so avoiding flames of violence or aggression raise, as they know the people by being so omni-present, they can reason with them in a much easier way,'' Andries explained.
     ''We contacted police services present at the Japanese Embassy in Brussels to ask how things were organized in Japan.''
     ''It might seem a minor problem if a truck blocks the road because he has to deliver goods to a shop, but when a tram is arriving on the same road, this can soon escalate in some kind of row,'' according to the official.
     ''Our kobans will be set up at places where a lot of people gather, such as in the environment of markets, schools or churches. The principal thing is to find a solution quickly in case of trouble. Not only does quick action avoid tension in the streets, with some agents at fixed places an intervention of a larger police team will often not be necessary either.''
==Kyodo