350 residential burglaries were recorded in Mons in 2025. That is 6.7 per week, in a municipality which recorded 829 in 2019 and 1,188 at the peak of the series. The decline is massive, yet it does not alter the underlying dynamics: burglars do not enter a house in Mons at random; they enter a house they have checked is empty.
A sharp fall, followed by a three-year plateau
Police crime statistics show the number of recorded offences by municipality. For Mons, the 2019–2025 data series can be divided into two very distinct phases, and confusing the two leads to poor decisions.
First, the decline: 829 incidents in 2019, 486 in 2020, 434 in 2021, 344 in 2022. The drop in 2020 is not down to successful prevention; it is due to the lockdown: a home that is constantly occupied does not offer the window of opportunity required for a burglary. More notably, the return to normal life did not lead to any rebound in Mons; the decline continued into 2021 and 2022.
Second phase, the plateau: 375 incidents in 2023, 368 in 2024, 350 in 2025. Three years within a hair’s breadth of one another. The -4.9% for the last year does not mark the start of a new downward cycle: it describes a stabilisation. The long-term reading, however, is unambiguous: -57.8% since 2019, and a considerable distance from the 1,188 incidents in 2000 and the 983 in 2015.
One final useful statistic: of the 462 burglaries in buildings recorded in Mons in 2025, homes account for 76%. The remainder targets non-residential buildings — shops in the centre, offices and business premises. This is the hallmark of a central city that concentrates commercial and administrative functions for an entire catchment area, whilst — through its former merged municipalities such as Jemappes, Cuesmes, Ghlin and Hyon — remaining largely an area of detached houses.
The deciding factor in Mons: absence
A burglary is almost never a confrontation. It is a brief operation based on a prior certainty: no one is going to come home. Everything else — the choice of window, the tool, the time spent on the premises — follows on from this certainty. In Mons, this translates into two very different patterns of absence.
Daily absence. In the residential streets of the outlying districts, weekdays leave the streets literally deserted. Shutters still closed in the early morning, an overflowing letterbox, no car in the driveway, a single light left on permanently: these are all signs that can be read from the pavement in a matter of seconds. The question is not whether you are being watched, but what your façade reveals in your absence.
Prolonged absence. Holidays, back-to-back weekends away, a second family home: the house remains empty for several days at a time. The nature of the risk then changes. It is no longer the duration of the break-in that matters, but the time it takes before anyone notices anything. A break-in discovered on returning from holiday is a ten-day crime scene, with no footage, no timestamps and no witnesses.
These two patterns give rise to a single requirement: your installation must produce remotely verifiable information, not just noise. A siren wailing in a deserted street in Ghlin on a Tuesday morning is only of any use if someone can find out, within a minute, what is happening inside. That is precisely the role of photo-verification detectors: they turn a notification into an established fact, while meeting the Belgian requirement to verify an alarm before police intervention.
The Mons grant: 25%, capped at €250, and nothing for the alarm
This is the point where almost all commercial websites spout nonsense, so we might as well be straight with you.
The City of Mons does indeed support home security measures: 25% of the purchase or installation price, up to a maximum of €250, open to both owners and tenants of a home located in Mons.
However, this grant covers mechanical protection only, and excludes alarm systems and surveillance cameras. What the municipality subsidises are the elements that delay a break-in: reinforced cylinders and locks, burglar-resistant glazing, sturdy doors and frames, protection of access points. No municipal grant will reimburse you for an alarm control panel, a detector or a camera. If a salesperson suggests otherwise, they are either mistaken or lying.
This is not a contradiction, but a division of roles. Mechanical protection buys time; electronics generates information and triggers a response. The two complement each other, and the most rational chronological order is the one the grant follows: reinforce the entry points first, then detect. Details of the conditions can be found on the City of Mons prevention and safety page; the amounts and conditions vary from one year to the next, so please check them before incurring any expenditure.
A free visit from the burglary prevention adviser
Mons falls under the Mons-Quévy police zone, which provides residents with burglary prevention advisers. Their visit is free, they have no equipment to sell, and their report focuses on your actual home: the orientation of the plot, the depth of the garden, the quality of the existing window frames, and the visibility from the street.
For a detached house in Mons, this assessment helps to avoid the most common mistake: equipping the front façade, which is the least exposed, whilst leaving the kitchen door on the garden side in its original condition.
Keeping an eye on an empty house without turning it into a bunker
The set-up that matches the risk in Mons is not a question of the quantity of equipment, but of a coherent chain linking detection, verification and response.
- A standalone control panel, able to operate without a compulsory subscription and to notify you wherever you are — see the Ajax control panels and our article on the Ajax alarm without a subscription.
- Detection on the rear entrances rather than in the middle of the living room, with magnetic contacts on the garden door and patio windows, and outdoor detection if the garden is deep.
- Photo verification in the rooms people pass through – the only way to tell a cat from an intruder remotely and to avoid a needless trip by a relative.
- An outdoor siren: interrupting a burglary in progress remains the main measurable effect of an alarm, and the siren is what produces that interruption.
- A camera on the least visible entrance, in strict compliance with the legal framing rules — the Wi-Fi cameras are suitable for long absences.
For a first installation, an alarm kit covers the essentials; beyond a few entry points, a configuration designed point by point costs less than a kit that is added to later.
What Belgian law requires once the system is installed
Two distinct regimes, often confused, and both federal: they apply in Mons exactly as they do in Brussels or Ghent.
Alarm: declaration within ten days via police-on-web, annual confirmation, outdoor siren limited to three minutes, annual maintenance, and mandatory verification before any police intervention. These obligations stem from the Royal Decree of 25 April 2007; full details can be found in our guide on the declaration of an alarm system in Belgium.
Camera: declaration on declarationcamera.be, a visible regulatory pictogram, a record of processing activities, and a ban on filming the public highway or a neighbour’s property. On a residential plot in Mons, this last constraint determines the mounting height and angle far more than the camera’s technical specifications. See our article on the camera law in Belgium.
Frequently asked questions
How many burglaries were there in Mons in 2025?
350 residential burglaries were recorded in Mons in 2025, an average of 6.7 per week. This is 4.9% fewer than in 2024 (368 incidents) and 57.8% fewer than in 2019 (829 incidents).
Does the City of Mons grant cover an alarm or a camera?
No. The Mons grant, amounting to 25% of the purchase or installation cost capped at €250, covers only mechanical protection: reinforced locks and cylinders, burglar-resistant glazing, doors and window frames. Alarm systems and surveillance cameras are excluded. It is open to both owners and tenants of a home located in Mons.
What should you do before leaving Mons for several days?
The first step is to remove any signs of absence visible from the street: post collected, shutters not left in a single position, variable lighting. Only then comes the technical question: having detection that alerts you and remote verification; otherwise, you will only discover what has happened when you return.
Do you need to declare your alarm if you live in Mons?
Yes, as everywhere in Belgium. The declaration must be made within ten days of installation via police-on-web and must be confirmed every year. This obligation is federal, stemming from the Royal Decree of 25 April 2007, and does not depend on the municipality or the police zone.
Where can I get free burglary prevention advice in Mons?
From the burglary prevention advisers of the Mons-Quévy police zone, whose home visits are free of charge and have no commercial interest. The City of Mons promotes this service on its prevention and safety page, which also sets out the conditions of the municipal grant.
Sources: Police crime statistics, Federal Police DGR/DRI/BIPOL, publication 2025_T04 (closing date 24/04/2026) — Mons municipal factsheet. Conditions of the municipal grant: municipality of Mons. The amounts and conditions of the grant change from one year to the next: please check them with the municipality before incurring any costs.