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15 MAI 2007. - Act respecting the creation of the function of guardian of peace, the creation of the service of the guardians of peace and the amendment of section 119bis of the new communal law (1)

ALBERT II, King of the Belgians,
To all, present and to come, Hi.
The Chambers adopted and We sanction the following:
Article 1^er. This Act governs a matter as referred to in Article 78 of the Constitution.
CHAPTER I^er. - Scope of application
Art. 2. The commune that employs or intends to recruit people for the exercise of one or more activities referred to in Article 3, below referred to as the organizing commune, creates a "service of peacekeepers", after it was decided in the communal council.
Art. 3. The Peacekeeper Service is responsible for security and prevention missions with the aim of increasing the sense of security of citizens and preventing public nuisance and crime through one or more of the following activities:
1° public awareness of security and crime prevention;
2° Citizens' information with a view to guaranteeing a sense of security, as well as information and reporting to the relevant services of security, environment and road problems;
3° the information of motorists about the uncomfortable or dangerous nature of the faulty parking and the awareness of them of the general regulation on the road traffic police and the proper use of the public road, as well as the help to ensure the safe passage of children, schoolchildren, disabled or elderly persons;
4° the finding of breaches of by-laws and communal orders under Article 119bis, § 6, of the new communal law, which may be subject exclusively to administrative sanctions, or the finding of infringements of the ordinary royalty regulations;
5° the exercise of supervision of people to ensure safety at events organized by the authorities.
Art. 4. The peacekeepers ' service can organize its activities exclusively:
1° for activities referred to in Article 3, 1° to 4°, on the public road and in public places forming part of the territory of the organising commune;
2° for the activity referred to in Article 3, 5°, in all places in which the authorities organize these events in the territory of the organising commune.
Art. 5. By derogation from the provisions of Article 4, 1°, the service of peacekeepers may carry out its activities under the same conditions as for the organizer commune, in the following places and for the benefit of the following legal persons:
1° on the public road and in public places forming part of the territory of a commune belonging to the same police zone as the organizer commune, below referred to as "beneficiary municipality";
2° in provincial parks located in the territory of the organising or beneficiary commune; the province that manages these parks is referred to as the "recipient province";
3° in the infrastructure of a public transport company located in the territory of the organizer or beneficiary municipality, hereafter referred to as "beneficiary public transport company".
By derogation from the provisions of Article 4, 2°, the service of the peacekeepers may, under the same conditions as for the organizer commune, carry out its activities in all places where the authorities organize these events in the territory of the beneficiary commune.
Prerequisite to the exercise of the activities referred to in paragraphs 1^er and 2, the organizing municipality shall establish a written agreement with the beneficiary municipality, the beneficiary province or the beneficiary public transit corporation, as the case may be.
CHAPTER II. - Creation of a peacekeeper service
Art. 6. § 1^er. The organizing commune makes public by a decision of the communal council the creation of the service of the peacekeepers, the definition of its tasks, the name of the municipal official responsible for directing this service and the way in which citizens can file complaints against the service of the peacekeepers to the organizing commune.
When it is planned to carry out activities for the benefit of a beneficiary municipality, the communal council of the municipality shall enter into, in one of its decisions, the written agreement which was concluded with the organizing commune.
The organising commune and, where appropriate, the beneficiary commune shall transmit to the Minister of the Interior the decision of the communal council to establish the service of the peacekeepers and, where appropriate, to endorse the agreement between the organizing commune and the beneficiary commune within three months after the decision is taken.
§ 2. The missions of the peacekeepers' service carried out for the benefit of a community organizer or beneficiary must be part of the security and prevention policy of the organizing commune or the beneficiary commune, as the case may be.
§ 3. The organizing commune concludes with the local police a convention that designates a contact person within the police service and mentions the nature of the exchange of mutual information, as well as the concrete agreements taken for the exercise of activities within the organizing commune or the beneficiary commune.
CHAPTER III. - Operating conditions
Art. 7. § 1^er. The persons who carry out the activities as referred to in Article 3, 1°, 2°, 3° and/or 5° are called "guardians of peace".
The persons who carry out the activities as referred to in Article 3, 4°, are called "guardians of peace-seekers".
§ 2. Peacekeepers and peacekeepers can only be hired by the organizer commune after notice by the local police chief of the police competent for the police area of which is part of the organizer commune.
In order to express its opinion, the head of the body takes particular account of the elements that relate to the conditions referred to in Article 8, 2°, 3°, 4° and 5°. Without conducting specific investigations, he bases his conclusions on the information of the administrative and judicial police, of which he is aware.
Art. 8. Peacekeepers, peacekeepers, peacekeepers and community officials responsible for directing the service must meet the following conditions:
1° to be aged 18 years;
2° having not been sentenced, even suspended, to a correctional or criminal penalty consisting of a fine, a working sentence or a prison sentence, except for convictions for violation of the regulations relating to the traffic police;
3° have not committed any facts which, even if they have not been subject to a criminal conviction, infringe upon the credit of the person concerned because they constitute, in the head of the latter, a serious social breach or a contraindication to the desired profile of a peacekeeper, as referred to in § 2;
4° with regard to the "guardian of peace-seeker", having Belgian nationality and, with regard to the guardian of peace, being a national of a Member State of the European Union or another State, and in this case having its principal legal residence in Belgium for three years;
5° do not simultaneously perform private investigator activities, do not exercise a function under the Act of 10 April 1990 regulating private and special security, not be a member of a police service or not perform an activity defined by the King;
6° having been hired by the organising commune;
7° meet the conditions for preparation and training, as referred to in Article 10.
8° with regard to the "guardian of the peace-seeker", satisfy the minimum conditions set out in article 119bis, § 6, of the new communal law.
The desired profile of the peacekeeper and the peacekeeper is characterized by:
1° respect for his neighbour;
2° the civic sense;
3° a ability to cope with aggressive behaviour on the part of third parties and to control themselves in such situations;
4° respect for duties and procedures.
Art. 9. The organising commune establishes a rules of procedure in which it sets out the rules of ethics to which peacekeepers and peacekeepers must meet and determine the terms and conditions of their activities.
This rules of procedure are transmitted to peacekeepers and peacekeepers prior to their entry into service.
Art. 10. Training referred to in section 8, paragraph 1^er, 7°, may be provided by accredited training bodies for the training of police officers or by registered training bodies under section 4, § 3, of the Act of 10 April 1990 regulating private and special security which, after having demonstrated their ability to properly dispense the training referred to in paragraph 2, have been designated for that purpose by the Minister of the Interior.
The individual must have passed the basic training examinations that include at least the following:
1° Study of the rights and duties of peacekeepers and peacekeepers;
2° verbal and non-verbal communication techniques;
3° intercultural and learning contact with diversity;
4° observation and reporting;
5° the psychological approach to conflicts;
6° physical defence techniques;
7° rescue.
The King sets out the terms and conditions for the designation of training bodies, as well as the conditions and modalities of training.
Art. 11. Peacekeepers and peacekeepers wear uniform workwear. The workpiece is equipped with a uniform and recognisable emblem.
The Minister of the Interior sets out the model of the working and emblem of the peacekeepers and peacekeepers.
Art. 12. § 1^er. All peacekeepers and peacekeepers-statators are carrying an identification card.
This identification card is valid for a period of five years from the date of issue. It is renewable for identical periods of time.
The identification card includes the following:
1° the name and first name, as well as the photo of the holder;
2° the name of the organising commune;
3° the function of peacekeeper or peacekeeper, as appropriate;
4° the expiration date of the identification card.
Peacekeepers and peacekeepers can only carry out activities as referred to in Article 3, if they carry the identification card clearly legible.
§ 2. The identification card is issued by the village of the organising commune after having found that the interested person meets the conditions mentioned in section 8.
CHAPTER IV. - Skills
Art. 13. "peacekeepers" and "peacekeepers" may not carry out any mission other than those referred to in Article 3.
They perform their tasks in an unarmed manner.
They don't have handcuffs.
Art. 14. Peacekeepers and peacekeepers can not file acts other than those arising out of the exercise of the rights enjoyed by any citizen and the powers explicitly provided for in this Act.
They may not resort to any form of coercion or force, except as required in the exercise of the right referred to in section 1^er3°, of the Act of 20 July 1990 on preventive detention.
In the exercise of the activity referred to in Article 3, 3°, peacekeepers and peacekeepers can perform the tasks as referred to in Article 40 bis, 2 and 3 of the General Regulation on the Traffic Police.
Art. 15. Peacekeepers and peacekeepers, as well as observers, shall promptly inform the local police within the territory on which they carry out their missions all acts that constitute an offence or a crime.
Every time an employee of a competent service so requests, peacekeepers provide the information they are aware of in their activities.
The obligations under this section shall be exercised in accordance with the rules of procedure.
Art. 16. The King may set the equipment, methods and procedures that are not provided for in this Act and that peacekeepers and peacekeepers may or should be used in the exercise of their duties.
CHAPTER V. - Control
Art. 17. § 1^er. In accordance with the procedure to be determined by the King, the mayor of the organising commune may, on a temporary or definitive basis, remove the identification card of peacekeepers or peacekeepers who do not respect the law, its enforcement orders or the rules of procedure.
In accordance with the procedure to be determined by the King, the mayor permanently withdraws the identification card of the peacekeeper or the peacekeeper when the latter no longer meets the conditions referred to in Article 8.
§ 2. Members of the police services and officials and agents designated by the King control the application of this Act and its enforcement orders.
Members of the police services shall, at the village of the organising commune, submit a report on the control carried out. The officials and agents designated by the King report on the control at the mayor and the Minister of the Interior.
The organizing commune provides officials and agents designated by the King with the necessary collaboration in carrying out their mission; they may consult all the necessary parts for this purpose.
CHAPTER VI. - Final and transitional provisions
Art. 18. The activities referred to in section 3 shall be governed exclusively by this Act, except as follows:
1° activities organized by police services;
2° the activities referred to in Article 3, 3°, 4° and 5°, and Article 5, paragraph 1^er2° if exercised under the Act of 10 April 1990 regulating private and special security;
3° the activities carried out by public transport companies under the law.
Art. 19. The organizing communes that, at the time of the coming into force of this Act, employ persons for the purpose of carrying out activities as referred to in section 3, shall have a period of six months, from the date of the coming into force of this Act, to result in a decision of the municipal council to establish a service of the guardians of peace and to transmit this decision of the communal council to the Minister of the Interior.
Art. 20. People who, as of 1^er January 2007, carrying out activities such as Article 3, 1°, 2°, 3° or 5°, may be engaged as peacekeepers provided that:
1° meet the requirements of Article 8, paragraph 1^er6° and 7°;
2° did not suffer after 1^er January 2007, a conviction referred to in section 8, paragraph 1^er, 2°, or having committed, after that same date, acts as referred to in Article 8, paragraph 1^er3°;
3° do not engage in activities as referred to in Article 8, paragraph 1^er5°, on the date of the creation of the service of the peacekeepers.
In addition, persons who, as of 1^er January 2007, carry out activities as referred to in Article 3, 4°, shall meet the minimum requirements referred to in paragraph 1^er and Article 8, paragraph 1^er8°.
Derogation from paragraph 1^er, 1°, persons referred to in this article may be recruited provisionally without meeting the requirement of Article 8, paragraph 1^er7°, if, at the time of recruitment, no training body referred to in section 10 has yet been designated to provide training in the language of the person concerned. No later than one year after the first designation of the organization that provides training in the language of the person concerned, such persons shall meet the requirements of Article 8, paragraph 1^er7°.
CHAPTER VII. - Amendment of Article 119bis of the new communal law
Art. 21. Article 119bis, § 6, paragraph 2, 1°, of the new communal law, inserted in the law of 13 May 1999 and amended by the laws of 26 June 2000, 7 May 2004, 17 June 2004 and 20 July 2005, is supplemented as follows:
"the local-detailer agent may ask the offender for the identity document or other identification document to ensure the identity of the individual.
Identity control is only authorized in respect of persons where the officer found that they have committed acts that could result in a communal administrative sanction."
Promulgation of this law, let us order that it be clothed with the seal of the State and published by the Belgian Monitor.
Given in Brussels on 15 May 2007.
ALBERT
By the King:
The Minister of the Interior,
P. DEWAEL
Seal of the state seal:
The Minister of Justice,
Ms. L. ONKELINX
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Note
Regular session 2006-2007.
House of Representatives.
Parliamentary documents. - Bill No. 51-3009/1. Report on behalf of the Commission, No. 51-3009/2. - Text corrected by the Commission, No. 51-3009/3. - Text adopted in plenary and transmitted to the Senate, No. 51-3009/4.
Annales parliamentarians. - Discussion and adoption. Session of April 19, 2007.
Senate.
Parliamentary documents. - Project referred to by the Senate, No. 3-2423/1. - Amendments, No. 3-2423/2. - Report made on behalf of the Commission, No. 3-2423/3. - Decision not to amend, No. 3-2423/4.