Six burglaries a week: that is the average for Molenbeek-Saint-Jean in 2025, with 310 incidents recorded in homes. The figure has been falling slowly since 2019, but it hides an entire population that the statistics do not count separately: shopkeepers and self-employed people based on the ground floor, often below their own home.
What the Molenbeek series shows
Incidents recorded in the municipality went from 394 in 2019 to 308 in 2020 and 273 in 2021 — the low point of the series — then rose again to 343 in 2022, 320 in 2023 and 338 in 2024, before falling back to 310 in 2025. Over six years, that gives −21.3%, and −8.3% over the last year alone.
Two readings stand out. The first: Molenbeek is no longer at all the municipality of 2015, when 604 residential burglaries were recorded. The current level is also below that of 2000 (416 incidents). The second, less comfortable: since 2021, the series has fluctuated in a narrow band between 273 and 343 without ever breaking out. This is not a decline, it is a plateau. A municipality on a plateau benefits from no automatic effect: what moves the figures are decisions taken building by building.
Independent shops, the blind spot of the statistics
Molenbeek recorded 396 burglaries in buildings in 2025, all categories combined, 78% of which targeted a home. Just over one incident in five therefore concerned something else: a shop, a workshop, a storage unit, an office, a community space. In a municipality where ground-floor shops shape entire streets — from the lower part of the municipality by the canal to the neighbourhood centres — this share is far from anecdotal.
A burgled shop poses a different problem from a home. The goods are grouped together, known and easy to resell: stock, till, professional equipment, tools. The shop window exposes the inventory to scouting during opening hours, free of charge. And the interruption of business often costs more than the theft itself: a smashed door means a day without turnover, a shutter to replace, an insurance claim and, for many self-employed people, no replacement income.
Added to this is a feature of Molenbeek’s buildings: the shop very often has the owner’s or tenants’ home above it. The ground floor and the upper floor form a single volume, with an internal staircase. Protecting the shop without protecting the link to the floor above — or vice versa — leaves open the route the intruder will take.
What a shop needs to protect, in order
Useful reasoning starts from the actual access points, not from the catalogue.
- The shop window and the metal roller shutter. The shutter delays; it does not stop. An opening contact on the shutter and on the door raises the alarm as the delay starts being used up, not when someone is already inside.
- The back door or the service yard. This is almost always the preferred access: no shop window, no passers-by, no street lighting. In a dense block, an inner courtyard is a private but invisible space.
- The stockroom and the technical room, where the stock is concentrated and where nobody goes during quiet hours.
- The staircase to the flat, if the owner lives above: a motion detector at this point links the two zones without merging them.
For staff presence, another need arises, specific to shops and absent from homes: a discreet alert during opening hours. A panic or assistance button placed under the counter makes it possible to trigger an alert without a visible gesture. It is shop equipment, not home equipment, and it is installed far too rarely.
For detection and control, a control panel combined with opening contacts on the shop window, shutter and service door covers the basic structure; the choice of the rest depends on the floor area and the number of access points. Our comparison alarm or camera explains what each of the two really does — one signals, the other documents, and a shop needs both for different reasons.
Filming your shop: what Belgian law allows
A shop is an enclosed place accessible to the public, and this imposes a specific regime. The camera must be declared on declarationcamera.be, the regulatory pictogram must be visible at the entrance, and a register of processing activities must be kept. Above all, the camera’s field of view may cover neither the public highway nor other people’s property: filming your shop window from inside is allowed, framing the pavement in front is not. On a narrow shopping street, the difference comes down to a few degrees of tilt. The full rules are set out in our guide on the camera law in Belgium.
Technically, a shop needs two things a home does not: enough resolution to identify — not just observe — at the till and the entrance, and a recording duration that covers a full weekend. See the Dahua PTZ cameras, which cover a large sales floor from a single point, and the PoE NVR recorders that power the cameras through the network cable — a real advantage when cables have to be run through an old building. For an installation in occupied commercial premises, our installation services avoid unnecessary business interruptions.
For alarms, the obligations are federal and identical for a shop and a home: declaration within ten days via police-on-web, annual confirmation, outdoor siren limited to three minutes, annual maintenance and mandatory alarm verification before police intervention. Our guide on the declaration of an alarm system sets out the procedure.
Municipal grant and free advice in Molenbeek
No municipal home-security grant has been identified for Molenbeek-Saint-Jean. This does not mean there is no support at all: where grants exist in other Belgian municipalities, they in any case fund mechanical protection — locks, cylinders, burglar-resistant glazing, frames — and almost always exclude alarms and cameras.
The scheme that can really be used here is the burglary prevention adviser of the Brussels-West police zone (5340), which covers Molenbeek, Jette, Ganshoren, Berchem-Sainte-Agathe and Koekelberg. The visit is free, no sales offer follows it, and it covers the access points as they are — including those of a shop. Requests are made via the zone’s prevention page.
Frequently asked questions
How many burglaries were there in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean in 2025?
310 residential burglaries were recorded in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean in 2025, an average of six per week. This is 8.3% fewer than in 2024 (338 incidents) and 21.3% fewer than in 2019 (394 incidents).
Is there a municipal grant for securing a home in Molenbeek?
No municipal home-security grant has been identified for Molenbeek-Saint-Jean. The right contact is the burglary prevention adviser of the Brussels-West police zone (5340), whose home visit is free and has no commercial interest.
Are shops included in the burglary figures?
Not in the same category. Molenbeek recorded 396 burglaries in buildings in 2025, 78% of which targeted a home: the remainder corresponds to non-residential premises, including shops and workshops. Just over one incident in five therefore does not concern a home.
Can I install a camera that films the pavement in front of my shop?
No. A private camera may film neither the public highway nor a neighbour’s property, even to watch your own shop window. It must stay framed on your premises and your private surroundings, be declared on declarationcamera.be and be indicated by the regulatory pictogram at the entrance.
Which police zone covers Molenbeek-Saint-Jean?
The Brussels-West police zone (5340), which groups Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, Jette, Ganshoren, Berchem-Sainte-Agathe and Koekelberg. It is the zone to contact to request the free visit of the burglary prevention adviser.
Sources: Police crime statistics, Federal Police DGR/DRI/BIPOL, publication 2025_T04 (cut-off date 24/04/2026) — Molenbeek-Saint-Jean municipal fact sheet. Municipal schemes change from one budget year to the next: check with the municipality before incurring any costs.