A new police undercover team will take over at the start of next year following revelations about longstanding lack of managerial support at the current one, resulting in the suicide of one of the officers in 2021, the Telegraaf reported on Monday.

Reports criticising the work culture at the undercover unit WOD and police blunders surrounding the suicide meant that the number of undercover operations has been halved over the past two years.

The officer, one of the most experienced members of the WOD, wanted to pull out of a lengthy drugs-related undercover operation but was forced to continue. The officer lived next door to a cocaine trader and had a relationship with his wife. A committee later found his suicide to be the result of gross negligence on the part of his handlers.

“The management of the undercover officers was substandard and that affected their safety,” police chief Rob van Bree told the paper. “We decided we would have to start again if we were to carry out the committee’s recommendations.”

Van Bree called the decision to cut investigations in the meantime a “painful” one because “undercover operations are essential in the fight against crime and terrorism.”

The new team will be better organised and more attention will be paid to officers’ well-being and there will be a maximum period in which they can do the job, head of operations Manon van Rosmalen said. Some officers worked undercover for as long as 12 years but that has now been limited to eight, she said.