When the police have the task of eliminating an armed person as quickly as possible, the AMOK procedure is used. This method was established in the Netherlands in 2010 by the Council of Chiefs of Police in response to a series of international incidents such as hostage takings in shopping centers and schools. The AMOK procedure is aimed at neutralizing an armed person as quickly as possible and preventing casualties. In Belgium and Germany the police work with the same guidelines.
AMOK procedure at the police
- Incidents that led to the AMOK procedure
- The AMOK procedure
- Armed man at the Eight O’Clock News
Incidents that led to the AMOK procedure
To introduce the AMOK procedure, the police used a strategy of containing . The first officers on the scene did not take immediate action but called for special units such as negotiators, snipers or other special units and waited for their arrival. However, various incidents at home and abroad have shown that this is not always the correct method. A perpetrator whose sole purpose is to cause as many victims as possible thus has the opportunity to continue undisturbed for longer while the police do nothing outside.
Some incidents in recent decades that have given rise to doubts about this method include the shootings in Hungerford (1987) and Cumbria (2010), the shootings and hostage takings in schools in Dunblane (1996), Erfurt (2002), Tuusula (2007), Kauhajoki (2008) and Winnenden (2009), as well as the series of attacks by Alexander Breidvik in which he opened fire on a large group of young people on the Norwegian island of Utoya.
The AMOK procedure
The word Amok comes from Malay and means something like ‘murderous attack’. In Dutch the word means something like arguing or causing problems. The definition of the word as used by the police to describe an AMOK situation is as follows: ‘ a situation in which a person or persons at a certain location attacks the persons present there and tries to kill as many victims as possible. ) without entrenching themselves or taking hostages .’ This is the type of situation in which it is not desirable to wait for special units, but where rapid action must have the highest priority. First-line officers, who are the first on the scene, must therefore also be trained in the AMOK procedure.
Agents are trained in this by following a two-day training course, with an additional half-day training every year. The emphasis here is mainly on locating, isolating and neutralizing a perpetrator or perpetrators. Police officers must be able to properly recognize the AMOK situation and then act in a force-control manner. Of course, there are also many situations where it is wise to wait for the arrival of special units. This may be the case, for example, when an perpetrator threatens suicide or when he is not aiming to cause many victims.
Armed man at the Eight O’Clock News
On Thursday, January 29, 2015, the whole of the Netherlands was presented with a textbook example of an AMOK situation and the associated police response. Just before the start of the Eight O’Clock News on NOS, a man – with what later turned out to be a fake weapon – entered the building from which the news would be broadcast. The man demanded air time, held a doorman at gunpoint and announced that bombs had been placed in several places in the Netherlands that would go off if his instructions were not followed. After the first officers on the scene were able to observe the perpetrator through camera images, they stormed the room where the perpetrator was located with bulletproof vests and drawn pistols and forced him with verbal violence to drop his weapon and be arrested. The day after the incident, the police expressed satisfaction with the correct implementation of the AMOK procedure.