being forced to close, contacted the city and communicated that he feared
an increase in nuisance created by double-parking, noise and men hanging
around. He was afraid that he might lose his license to sell cannabis
because of the consequences of the implementation of the distance criter-
ion. Police were also worried about the situation that might develop after
the closure of the 16 coffee shops. The police officers said that they were
instructed to pay close attention to disorderly situations in and around cof-
fee shops on their regular patrols through the districts. Especially the police
in District West were on their guard because five nearby coffee shops would
be closed. But to their surprise there was no increase in anti-social beha-
viour. This was confirmed by a study which consisted of a questionnaire
held on behalf of the city government in order to monitor the effect of the
closing of 16 coffee shops. The questionnaire was held before the closure
and twice after the closure. The study shows that anti-social behaviour
diminished at the place where there used to be coffee shops, but also (sig-
nificantly) at the places where there were still coffee shops (Bieleman,
Nijkamp, & Sijtstra, 2011). The report suggested that this was related to an
increase in police surveillance (ibid., p. 5). In my interviews with the police,
this was contradicted by the officers. They stated that they did pay more
attention but that there was hardly any more surveillance on the coffee
shops. It was part of the regular routine of their patrols in the city. On top
of that, they did not observe any increase in anti-social behaviour, which
was not frequent anyhow.
The general impression of the police officers was that most people who
livenear a coffee shop have accepted this as part of living in the city. But
when a complaint is made the police will check it thoroughly by observing
the coffee shop in question. In almost all cases (to be counted on one hand,
according to one respondent), the police could not determine anti-social
behaviour. In one case there were complaints about double-parking and
men hanging around. The police talked to the owner of the coffee shop and
he denied that the nuisance was related to his coffee shop. He pointed out
that another establishment in the same street was frequented by many peo-
ple. The police observed the coffee shop for several days in a row and con-
cluded that the nuisance was not related to the coffee shop in that
particular street but indeed to a restaurant annex cafe. The police have
infrequently been confronted by similar situations and relate the complaints
to citizens who have an interest in complaining, for instance middle-class
families who recently bought a house in the street and are afraid that the
value of their house might be jeopardized by the anti-social behaviour
related to coffee shops. In relation to other infractions of the law, the police
Moral Entrepreneurship Revisited 149