Recently, there has been a lot of controversy in the Netherlands about police visiting activists at their homes, and rightly so. People are getting home visits from the police after attending a protest or posting on social media. This is an intimidating practice that makes people feel unsafe participating in public debate. It harms not only these individuals, but also our society as a whole.

These visits are not incidents

Imagine using your right to protest, and a week later, the police show up at your door. It sounds scary, and it is. Yet this happens regularly in the Netherlands. Since 2022, Extinction Rebellion has received 35 reports of such incidents. These home visits don't only affect climate activists. But how do the police decide to make such a visit? They are increasingly using digital surveillance tools to monitor who is involved in protests. They monitor social media, infiltrate chat groups, and keep records of all of it. Simply sharing a call to protest online can be enough for the police to request your address and come to your door.

Intimidation is harmful to democracy

We should not assume that the people visited by the police are the only ones affected by this. This intimidating practice has an enormous chilling effect. This means that it becomes much scarier, and therefore more difficult, for people to participate in a protest. Even if they want to. A home visit sends a strong signal that the authorities disapprove of protests and creates a major barrier to participation. After all, you want to avoid the police showing up on your doorstep.

And it goes even further than that. It makes it more difficult to share a call to protest, a post with your political opinion, or any other contribution to the public debate. You may second-guess, and resultantly tone down, your message before you send it out into the world. After all, the police are reading it. And you want to avoid them showing up at your door. You may prevent the police from coming to your house, but the police are already in your head. It is becoming increasingly difficult for people to speak out.

To maintain a healthy public debate, it is important that citizens feel safe to express their opinions. This is not possible if the police are reading and monitoring what you say, and if you cannot even post about a call to protest without the threat of a home visit. If the police truly want to protect the safety of citizens exercising their right to freedom of expression and protest, they must allow people the space to do so freely and safely.