The Dutch countryside is a paradise for criminals where the police rarely show their faces, according to a ‘damning’ statement on the priorities of the national police force by the 12 king’s commissioners in the Netherlands, the AD said on Tuesday.

While the police increasingly focus on urban crime, a ‘police-free countryside’ is developing without enough beat officers or detectives and an inadequate water police force, the briefing states, the paper said.

For example, prostitution and exploitation are rife at some of the 400 holiday parks in Gelderland, the briefing said. ‘If you want to have a career in crime, you would be wise to go to the countryside where there are hardly any police officers,’ the AD quotes the report as saying.

Countryside police officers are rarely seen unless there is an emergency and it can take up to 30 minutes to reach an incident because the rural police districts are so big.

The commissioners also point out that the rural water police forces are under such pressure that there is virtually no supervision at marinas and Zeeland, the Netherlands’ second sea port, does not have its own police force.

The AD said the national police force and the justice ministry have declined to comment on the report but officials will meet the king’s commissioners for talks in the near future.