Samenvatting

In the reduction of undermining crime in the Netherlands, the role of local government has become more important over the past decade. One of the means used for this is Article 13b of the Opium Act (the Damocles Act). That has evolved from a way of closing down local dealer properties to a means of disrupting the criminal drug world. In this article we analyse the developments that the application of the article has gone through. We make an inventory of the actual use of the article in a region known as one of the hotbeds of subversive crime in the Netherlands, the region of West and Central Brabant. Finally, we will discuss the consequences that application of the article has for the position of the mayor. Does this lead to a mayorship in which this officer becomes more of a ‘sheriff’ and less of a mayor? We show that this is not the case.