The “judicialization” of emergency management in Belgium: From a safety regime toward a security one

This paper analyzes changes in emergency management in Belgium that have accompanied growing security concerns in Western countries since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States. Using an instrumentation approach, we show how the adoption of a particular regulatory instrument helped put police and judicial actors center stage and gave a more prominent place to the inquiry. We show how the instrument is hampering cooperation, communication, and trust in rescue services and may undermine the collective intelligence at the core of emergency responses. We argue that these changes are indicators of the rise of a new “emergency management security regime” that contradicts the original safety regime applied since the 1960s.