29 October 2007: Police Stopped

A Brussels police chief has issued a warning to his officers to abstain from visiting brothels and drinking alcohol during working hours.

The police chief wrote: "Staff think that working hours are for drinking alcohol, playing sport, frequenting brothels or massage parlours, and developing intimate relationships with residents of their neighbourhood".

He warned that such acts would "no longer be tolerated."

Questioned by journalists a police spokesman said that the abuses cited were, in his words, "baseless rumours", and that no such activities had actually taken place.