The Dutch police are going to migrate to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 . The Dutch Police cooperation “voorziening tot samenwerking Politie Nederland” has selected RHEL 5 & Red Hat Network Satellite Server to manage the rollout of the Linux based systems, to make it easier, faster & more scalable.

The Dutch police has a force of 60.000 people, divided into 25 regional forces & National Police (KLPD). The Police Cooperation was established in 2006 for these forces. They support the police and other partners in the Public Safety Sector. One of the important tasks of this cooperation are the ICT facilities, including a standardized IT architecture.

The choice of the police for 500 RHEL5 subscriptions & 2 RHN Satellite Servers follows a change in policy. The Dutch Police will select only open source solutions. “One trend we see in various government organizations is to reduce costs,” according to Sander Klein, general manager at Red Hat.

The Dutch Police was criticized earlier this year, because they've asked for 30.000 Windows-Based Terminals. Minister of Internal Affairs Guusje ter Horst promised that the police would use more open source software and apply to open standards, as published on the Linuxmag.nl site.