With 409 residential burglaries in 2025, Anderlecht reached the lowest point in its recent series: 16.2% fewer than in 2024 and 40.6% fewer than in 2019. Even so, 7.9 homes a week are still being burgled there, and some of the systems installed to prevent this do not comply with the rules. Alarms and cameras are subject to two distinct legal regimes, and confusing them costs more than complying with them.
What the Anderlecht statistics show
The municipality has seen a long and consistent decline: 689 incidents in 2019, 552 in 2020, followed by a remarkably stable three-year plateau — 485, 468, 464 — before a slight rise to 488 in 2024 and a sharp drop to 409 in 2025. The municipal peak was in 2015, with 929 incidents; the 2000 figure stood at 607. In other words, 2025 is also the first year in the series to fall below the 450-incident mark.
A structural detail: of the 584 burglaries in buildings recorded in Anderlecht in 2025, homes account for 70%. The rest targeted shops, workshops and business premises — reflecting a mixed urban fabric where housing and business often coexist within the same block. This is worth bearing in mind, as the legal regime for a camera differs depending on whether it protects a home or a place open to the public.
An alarm: five obligations, one of which almost nobody anticipates
The framework is set out in the Royal Decree of 25 April 2007. It is federal: it applies in the same way in Anderlecht, Ostend and Arlon, and no municipal rule can relax it.
Firstly, declaration within ten days of commissioning, via police-on-web. Secondly, annual confirmation of this declaration — this is the obligation most often forgotten, because there is no automatic reminder and a system declared in 2019 but never reconfirmed is no longer compliant. Thirdly, an outdoor siren limited to three minutes: beyond that, it becomes a noise nuisance, and in an Anderlecht building with several flats, it is the neighbours who report it before the authorities do. Fourthly, annual maintenance of the installation.
Fifthly, and this is the decisive point: alarm verification is mandatory before any police intervention. An alarm going off does not, on its own, trigger the dispatch of a patrol. It must first be established that something is happening. This has an immediate practical consequence for the choice of equipment: detection with photo verification provides, at the moment of triggering, the evidence needed to tell a cat from a break-in. Without it, you depend on someone travelling to the site — yourself or a third party. Our guide on the declaration of an alarm system in Belgium sets out the procedure, and our article on alarms with no subscription explains how alarm verification is organised when you do not use a remote monitoring centre.
A camera: framing is the toughest constraint
The regime is entirely different, and it does not stem from the same legislation. Four obligations apply: declaration on declarationcamera.be, regulatory pictogram visible at the entrance to the filmed area, register of processing activities kept by the controller, and a ban on filming the public highway or other people’s property.
It is this last rule that poses the real problem in Anderlecht. The municipality’s building stock is dense: façades lining the pavement, narrow streets, terraced buildings, communal entrances opening directly onto the street. A camera mounted above a front door and pointing outwards almost inevitably films the pavement and part of the road. It is then unlawful, whatever its owner’s intention.
The solutions are technical, not legal: lower the mounting point, move the camera closer to the façade, narrow the angle, mask the public part of the field of view. A dome camera mounted flush under a canopy covers the doorstep without taking in the street; a bullet camera mounted high and pointing far away does the opposite. The rules are set out in detail in our article on the camera law in Belgium, and our comparison alarm or camera helps you decide between the two.
A common special case in the municipality: cameras in the common areas of a co-owned building. They require a decision by the general meeting, clear information for occupants, a register, and framing that does not monitor any particular flat door. Filming a neighbour’s entrance from the shared landing is not a grey area.
Anderlecht’s municipal grant: read carefully what it funds
Anderlecht offers a grant for securing homes against burglary: 25% of the investment, capped at €247.89. It is reserved for the main residence, subject to income ceilings, and requires prior contact with the burglary prevention adviser.
This is a point on which many commercial websites mislead their readers, so it is worth spelling out: this grant does not cover alarm systems, and it does not cover cameras. It funds mechanical protection — reinforced locks and cylinders, burglar-resistant glazing, sturdy doors and frames, additional locking. Not a single municipal euro will reimburse a control panel, a detector or a recorder.
This is not a rejection of electronics; it is a division of roles. The municipality subsidises what delays an intrusion, because time is what makes burglars give up; the alarm, for its part, signals. The rational order of work is, in fact, that of the grant: reinforce the access points first, then add detection. The full regulation and income conditions can be found on the burglary prevention page of the municipality of Anderlecht.
The burglary prevention adviser and Anderlecht’s buildings
Anderlecht falls under the Midi police zone (5341), together with Forest and Saint-Gilles. Its burglary prevention adviser visits free of charge, and the visit is in any case part of the municipal grant process.
In dense housing, what the adviser looks at is not what you might expect. The flat door is the home’s real barrier, not the street door: it is often original, with a single-point lock, and opens onto a corridor that nobody watches. The shared street door, with its doorbells and intercom, filters socially but not mechanically — couriers, canvassers and visitors to other floors pass through it unchecked. Finally, the cellars and common rooms offer time and discretion to anyone who is already inside. The electronic system that matches this risk is compact: magnetic contacts on the flat door and on openings accessible from a walkway or balcony, detection at the unavoidable passage through the hallway, and no over-equipping of the living room. The alarm kits cover this format without building work or drilling.
Frequently asked questions
Does Anderlecht’s municipal grant cover an alarm or a camera?
No. The Anderlecht grant, worth 25% of the investment and capped at €247.89, funds only mechanical protection measures: reinforced locks and cylinders, burglar-resistant glazing, doors and frames. Alarm systems and surveillance cameras are excluded. It is also reserved for the main residence, subject to income ceilings, after contact with the burglary prevention adviser.
How many burglaries were recorded in Anderlecht in 2025?
409 residential burglaries, or 7.9 per week. This is 16.2% fewer than in 2024 (488 incidents) and 40.6% fewer than in 2019 (689 incidents). The municipal peak dates back to 2015, with 929 incidents.
Do you have to re-declare your alarm every year?
Yes. The initial declaration must be made within ten days of installation via police-on-web, but it must be confirmed every year. A system declared once and never reconfirmed is no longer compliant. This obligation stems from the Royal Decree of 25 April 2007 and applies throughout Belgium.
Can I install a camera above my front door in Anderlecht?
Yes, provided it films neither the pavement, nor the road, nor a neighbour’s property. In Anderlecht’s dense housing, where façades face the street, this often means lowering the mounting point, narrowing the angle and masking the public part of the field of view. The camera must also be declared on declarationcamera.be and indicated by the regulatory pictogram.
What happens if my alarm goes off in Anderlecht?
An alarm going off is not enough to bring in the police: alarm verification is mandatory beforehand. It must be established that an intrusion is actually taking place, through an on-site check or remote verification, for example detection with photo verification. Without this evidence, there is no police intervention.
Sources: Police crime statistics, Federal Police DGR/DRI/BIPOL, publication 2025_T04 (cut-off date 24/04/2026) — Anderlecht municipal fact sheet. Grant regulation and burglary prevention: municipality of Anderlecht. Police zone: Midi zone (5341). Grant amounts and conditions change from one budget year to the next: check with the municipality before incurring any costs.