In the country's smallest and most densely populated municipality, the police recorded 59 residential burglaries in 2025. That is 1.1 per week, and 38.5% fewer than in 2024. Which leaves the question everyone asks next: who pays for protection, and for what exactly?
59 incidents in 2025: a real decline, to be read with caution
The Saint-Josse series over the last seven years rises and falls sharply: 92 incidents in 2019, 51 in 2020, 48 in 2021, then a marked rebound to 115 in 2022 and 116 in 2023, 96 in 2024 and 59 in 2025. The year-on-year fall reaches 38.5%, and the gap compared with 2019 stands at −35.9%.
Three caveats before calling it a victory. First, 2025 is not the low point of the series: the 48 incidents of 2021 remain lower, and they are largely explained by the health restrictions, which kept homes occupied. Second, at volumes of this order, thirty-seven fewer incidents mechanically produce a spectacular percentage; the same change in a municipality with eight hundred burglaries would go unnoticed. Finally, the highest figure on record dates back to 2017 with 127 incidents, and the municipality stood at 88 in 2000, then 119 in 2015: the underlying movement is more of an oscillation than a slope.
One last figure changes how the risk should be read. In 2025, the municipality recorded 100 burglaries in buildings, 59 of them in a home: 59%. Four break-ins out of ten therefore target something other than a home — shops, offices, business premises. Saint-Josse-ten-Noode is not a purely residential municipality, and this also matters for the self-employed who work there.
Public money available: what is certain, and what is not
Many commercial websites announce security premiums without saying which ones, or where. Let us be clear about what we know for Saint-Josse-ten-Noode.
We do not have a verified municipal regulation for this municipality. We will not invent one, and we will not transpose that of a neighbouring Brussels municipality: these regulations are voted locally, revised from one year to the next, and often subject to income ceilings. The correct approach is to contact the municipal administration or the zone's burglary prevention adviser before committing to any expenditure.
On the other hand, two things are certain and deserve to be said clearly.
The first: when a Belgian municipality grants a security premium, it funds mechanical protection — resistant locks and cylinders, burglar-resistant glazing, reinforced flat front doors and window frames, sometimes a door chain or limiter. In the vast majority of regulations, alarm systems and cameras are excluded. This is the most widespread mistake in the sector: nobody will reimburse an alarm on the grounds that a ‘security’ premium exists. Do not build your budget on it.
The second: there is one form of public support whose amount is known, immediate and complete, and that is the visit of the burglary prevention adviser. It is entirely free, funded by the police zone, and by far the best value for money available for a home in Saint-Josse.
The adviser of the Brussels North zone
Saint-Josse-ten-Noode falls under the Brussels North police zone (5344), together with Schaerbeek and Evere. The burglary prevention adviser visits your home, examines it door by door and window by window, and provides a written report. They sell nothing, work for no brand, and the municipality asks for nothing in return. The request procedure is described on the zone's dedicated page.
In a block of flats, the visit is doubly useful: the adviser assesses your flat, but also what comes before it — shared entrance hall, letterboxes, cellar door, car park access. That is precisely where most of the risk lies in Saint-Josse.
In dense housing, the weak point lies upstream of your door
The municipality is made up of tightly packed buildings, façades aligned on the street, shared halls and stacked flats. This urban form completely changes the reasoning compared with a house with a garden.
Nobody is interested in a third-floor window. The flat's front door, however, is a different story. It is the dominant entry point in multi-unit housing, and its weakness rarely lies in the wood: it lies in the cylinder, in the strike plate fixed into a tired door frame, and in the fact that the intruder works out of sight once the street door has been passed. Hence the real question: how did they get into the building?
Three mechanisms come up again and again. Remote opening via the intercom, when residents unlock without knowing who is calling. Slipping in behind a resident who is entering or leaving. And the street door that does not close fully because the door closer is out of adjustment. None of these three problems can be solved with individual equipment: they are solved by the co-ownership, at the general meeting, and it is often the adviser's report that unblocks the discussion.
On the flat side, useful protection is simple: a quality cylinder and a properly fixed front door first, then opening contacts on the door and on windows reachable from a walkway, a balcony or a neighbouring roof, and indoor detection in the hallway rather than one detector per room. A compact alarm kit is enough in most flats; the control panels manage everything without a compulsory subscription, as explained in our guide on the alarm without a subscription. The photo-verification detectors avoid a pointless trip home when an alert comes in during your working day — and follow the logic of alarm verification.
The legal obligations: federal and non-negotiable
They depend neither on the municipality nor on the region.
Alarm: declaration within ten days via police-on-web, annual confirmation, outdoor siren limited to three minutes, annual maintenance, mandatory alarm verification before police intervention. Legal basis: the Royal Decree of 25 April 2007. Details in our guide on the declaration of an alarm system.
Camera: declaration on declarationcamera.be, visible pictogram, register of processing activities, absolute ban on filming the public road or other people's property. In dense housing, this rule is the main source of trouble: in a narrow street, a camera placed above a street door almost always frames the pavement, which is forbidden for a private individual. Filming a building's entrance hall is, moreover, a decision for the co-ownership, not an individual choice. See our article on the camera law in Belgium.
Frequently asked questions
How many burglaries were recorded in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode in 2025?
59 residential burglaries, according to the federal police crime statistics, an average of 1.1 incidents per week. That is 38.5% fewer than in 2024 (96 incidents) and 35.9% fewer than in 2019 (92 incidents).
Is there a municipal premium to secure your home in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode?
We do not have a verified municipal regulation for Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, and we do not reuse that of a neighbouring municipality. Contact the municipal administration or the burglary prevention adviser of the Brussels North zone before incurring any costs, as these regulations are revised regularly.
Can a security premium reimburse an alarm?
In the vast majority of Belgian municipal regulations, no. These premiums fund mechanical protection: locks, cylinders, burglar-resistant glazing, reinforced doors and window frames. Alarm systems and cameras are generally excluded, so you should not build your budget on an assumed refund.
How do you request the free visit of the burglary prevention adviser?
Requests are made to the Brussels North police zone (5344), which covers Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Schaerbeek and Evere. The visit is free, has no commercial interest, and results in a written report examining each access point, including the common parts of the building.
Can I install a camera in front of my building's door?
Not freely. A private camera may film neither the public road nor other people's property, which rules out the pavement in a narrow street. It must be declared on declarationcamera.be and signalled by the regulatory pictogram; in the common parts, installation is a decision for the co-ownership.
Sources: Police crime statistics, Federal Police DGR/DRI/BIPOL, publication 2025_T04 (closing date 24/04/2026) — Saint-Josse-ten-Noode municipal factsheet. Burglary prevention: Brussels North police zone (5344). Municipal aid changes from one year to the next: check with the municipality before incurring any costs.