Police in the Netherlands respond to a person showing unexplained behavior in one of every five 112 emergency calls, according to research by the Police Academy and the National Police.

The study is the first to measure how much police time those calls consume. Researchers said a hardening of society may play a role.

Overall, police recorded nearly 170,000 nuisance reports involving confused persons in 2025. This is a rise from 90,628 cases in 2018.

More than 70 percent of the reports were handled within an hour. A quarter took one to three hours. Nearly 4 percent lasted more than three hours.

The figures vary by region. Zeeland-West-Brabant logged the most reports. Amsterdam received relatively the fewest reports of unexplained behavior but had the longest average handling time, 34 minutes. Officers in the Northern Netherlands finished fastest, with a median handling time of 15 minutes.

Bauke Koekkoek, a lecturer in unexplained behavior, safety and society, analyzed the data with Vanessa Swegler and Thijs Beckers. He said the term covers a wide range of public nuisance and conduct that is hard to interpret.

“In all cases it involves nuisance and strange, deviant behavior that is not easy to interpret. Someone is screaming, appears very confused, is disoriented, possibly under the influence of alcohol or drugs or makes suicidal statements,” Koekkoek said.

He said little is known about why the reports are rising.

“My main hypothesis is that society is becoming increasingly complicated and harder. For vulnerable people it is easier to get into trouble when stress about money, work or daytime activities increases,” he said.

Janis Tamsma, the police official responsible for care and safety, said the findings were not a surprise.

“We have been saying for years that there is an increase in the number of reports involving persons with unexplained behavior. It is very concerning,” Tamsma said.

She said many of the people involved need care and that police time could be used differently if that care were organized elsewhere.

“They are in fact patients with a care need, so we think it can be better arranged in other areas for this target group. We could also spend police capacity in a different way,” she said.

Projects intended to cut the number of police reports, many of them led by the care sector, have had little effect. The totals have not fallen.

Koekkoek said he does not blame people who call police.

“Sometimes it turned out afterward to be nothing much, but it is quite logical that you initially see it as a risk,” he said.

He said he is most concerned about people who come to police attention repeatedly.

“I am shocked that there are people who come to the police’s attention very often, who are really very complicated and disrupted and cost a lot of time and energy. Can’t we get that better organized in the Netherlands?” he said.

Koekkoek said better guidance, daytime activities and housing would help and that other parts of society must take part.

“We therefore also look at other sectors of society. We all have to do it together,” he said.

Tamsma said the same point has taken hold among the agencies involved.

“The realization has sunk in that the key does not lie with one party. We are all going to put our shoulders to the wheel, with the police, care, housing corporations and other parties,” she said.

She called first for more residential care facilities with good guidance. She also proposed an integrated 24-hour crisis service that includes care staff from the start.

“Sometimes someone from care can mean much more,” Tamsma said.