There are some figures you need to look at twice before celebrating. Namur went from 611 residential burglaries in 2024 to 275 in 2025: a 55 per cent fall in one year, as shown in the official police statistics. It is spectacular, it is the published figure — and that is precisely why it should be treated with caution rather than turned into a conclusion.
275 incidents in 2025: a figure to be confirmed in the following year
The complete series for Namur reads as follows: 699 incidents in 2019, 535 in 2020, 464 in 2021, 570 in 2022, 576 in 2023, 611 in 2024, and then 275 in 2025. Over six years, the change shown is −60.7%, including −55 per cent in the last year alone.
A fall of more than half in twelve months has no equivalent in the Namur series, nor in the preceding twenty-five years — the municipality recorded 1,019 residential burglaries in 2000 and 1,000 in 2015. A change of this magnitude may reflect a genuine trend, but it may also reflect a break in recording or in statistical scope, and nothing in the published data allows us to decide at present.
The honest position can therefore be summed up in a single sentence: the decline in 2025 is very marked, it is indeed the figure given by the official source, and it requires confirmation in the following year before it can be interpreted. Writing that burglaries have halved in Namur would go further than the data allows.
What the 2019-2024 period shows: a more reliable basis for reasoning
Over these six years, the trend in Namur is clear and far less flattering. The lows of 2020 and 2021 — 535 and then 464 incidents — were due to the COVID restrictions, a period when homes were almost never empty. Burglaries then rose for three consecutive years: 570, then 576, then 611. By 2024, Namur had therefore returned close to its 2019 level, with an underlying upward trend.
It is this slope that should guide the decisions of a household in Namur, not the single data point for 2025. Of the 378 burglaries in buildings recorded in 2025, 73 per cent targeted a home: housing remains the main target, and even at the 2025 level this represents 5.3 incidents per week.
Student rooms, flat shares and copied keys: the Namur particularity
Namur is a student city, and this creates a risk profile not found in a suburban municipality. Three mechanisms add to the usual causes.
The turnover of occupants. A student room (kot) or flat share changes occupants every year, sometimes twice a year. Every departure potentially leaves a key in circulation: copied ‘just in case’, lent to a former flatmate, never returned. A lock cylinder that hasn’t been changed for five tenants is no longer a lock; it is a formality. Replacing the cylinder between two leases costs a fraction of the price of a burglary and is part of mechanical protection, the most effective first line of defence.
Long periods of vacancy. University holidays empty entire buildings for weeks at a time, on dates known to everyone: a façade where not a single window is lit between mid-December and mid-January requires no sophisticated scouting.
The dilution of responsibility. In a flat share, no one is really responsible for locking up or reporting a communal door that no longer locks. In fact, the point of entry is often not forced: it is simply the one that was not locked.
Neighbours, the first sensor: neighbourhood information networks and vigilant neighbours
In a city where many homes are occupied by people just passing through, the vigilance of those who stay becomes a security measure in its own right — and it is the only one that works without any equipment.
The Neighbourhood Information Network (NIN, known in French as RIQ) is an official Belgian framework, overseen by the FPS Home Affairs and implemented with the local police zone. It is neither a militia nor a citizen patrol: participants do not watch the street; they report specific incidents or behaviour to the police and, in return, receive prompt and verified information about what is happening in their neighbourhood. Setting up a network requires the agreement of the police zone and adherence to a charter. To find out if there is one in your neighbourhood or how to set one up, the point of contact is the Namur Capitale police zone (5303).
On a smaller scale, an arrangement between three neighbours is often worth more than a subscription: collecting the post, putting out a bin, parking a car in front of an empty entrance, switching on a light. These actions remove precisely the signals that scouting relies on.
Finally, neighbours play a role that technology cannot replace: that of verifying. In Belgium, alarm verification is mandatory before any police intervention triggered by an alarm. In practical terms, someone must confirm that something is actually happening. That someone could be a remote monitoring operator, but also a trusted neighbour, or technical evidence. This is where photo-verification detectors become useful: they turn a notification into a confirmed observation, enabling a neighbour to act on information rather than on a hunch.
Registration, siren, camera: the Belgian framework
These obligations are federal and depend on neither the municipality nor the region. For an alarm: registration within ten days via police-on-web, annual confirmation, outdoor siren limited to three minutes, annual maintenance, mandatory alarm verification before intervention — Royal Decree of 25 April 2007. Detailed procedure in our guide on the registration of an alarm system. The outdoor siren also retains its primary function, which is to alert the neighbourhood.
For a camera: registration on declarationcamera.be, regulatory pictogram, data processing register, and the ban on filming public roads or neighbours’ property — a serious constraint in the narrow streets of Namur city centre. See our article on the law on CCTV cameras in Belgium, and the comparison alarm or camera if you have not yet decided.
For a rental or a student room, a wireless control panel combined with opening contacts has the advantage of being removable and of following the occupant from one lease to the next; operating without a subscription avoids committing to a term that does not match an academic year.
Municipal subsidy and free advice in Namur
Some Belgian municipalities offer a security subsidy. Where they exist, these subsidies fund mechanical protection — locks, cylinders, burglar-resistant glazing, window frames — and almost always exclude alarms and cameras. Check with your local council before incurring any costs, as the conditions change from one financial year to the next.
The one certain scheme is free of charge: the theft prevention adviser of the Namur Capitale police zone visits your home, assesses the actual access points and gives advice with no commercial interest whatsoever. For a student room or a flat share, the adviser is also the right person to help you choose between changing a cylinder and installing a system.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many burglaries were recorded in Namur in 2025?
Police statistics for Namur show 275 residential burglaries in 2025, compared with 611 in 2024. This 55 per cent fall in one year is very marked and unprecedented in the series; it needs to be confirmed in the following year before it can be interpreted as a lasting decline in crime.
Have burglaries really halved in Namur?
This is what the data published for 2025 shows, but a change of this magnitude over a single year may also reflect a break in recording. Over the more solid 2019-2024 period, the trend was the opposite: after a low of 464 incidents in 2021, burglaries rose to 570, 576 and then 611.
What is a Neighbourhood Information Network?
It is an official Belgian scheme, overseen by the FPS Home Affairs and implemented with the local police zone. Residents report specific incidents to the police and, in return, receive verified information about their neighbourhood. It involves neither patrols nor citizen surveillance, and setting one up requires the agreement of the police zone.
How can you secure a student room or flat share in Namur?
Start with the key: a lock cylinder that has not been replaced for several tenants may be circulating in several copies. Then fit the front door with an opening contact linked to a wireless control panel, which can be removed at the end of the lease. Mechanical security remains the first line of defence; detection comes second.
Do you have to register an alarm in Namur?
Yes, as everywhere in Belgium. Registration is done within ten days via police-on-web and confirmed every year, the outdoor siren is limited to three minutes and alarm verification is mandatory before any police intervention. These rules stem from the Royal Decree of 25 April 2007.
Sources: Police crime statistics, Federal Police DGR/DRI/BIPOL, publication 2025_T04 (cut-off date 24/04/2026) — Namur municipal fact sheet. The decline recorded between 2024 and 2025 is reproduced as published; its unusual scale calls for confirmation in the following year. Theft prevention: Namur Capitale police zone (5303).