Eric Van Wanzeele (1947 - )
Alex Van Wanzeele (1946 - )
Alex (1946) and Eric Van Wanzeele (1947) are two sons of August Van Wanzeele en Antoinette Beeusaert. The family has four sons: Alex, Luc, Eric and Filip. Luc becomes pedagogue. Filip, the youngest, GP.
It’s his dream to go and work for the Gendarmerie (federal police), like his father. After his training as an officer at the Royal School of Gendarmerie, he goes through the various echelons, and ends up as chief of police in 2006
Just like his brother Alex, he goes and works for the Gendarmerie. He graduates as a an officer at the Royal School of Gendarmerie. In 2003 he retires as superintendent.
1966 Alex Van Wanzeele federal police academy
1966 Alex Van Wanzeele federal police academy
2013 Alex Van Wanzeele with his daughter Nancy
1966 Alex Van Wanzeele federal police academy
1968 Eric Van Wanzeele paratrooper
1968 Eric Van Wanzeele paratrooper
2003 Eric Van Wanzeele superintendent federal police
1968 Eric Van Wanzeele paratrooper
August Van Wanzeele worked himself through all levels of the military police. Meanwhile he got his degree in Criminology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. In 1975 he obtained the highest possible degree, that of Lieutenant General. In 1976 he was appointed Commander of the Belgian Gendarmerie. In 1978 he honorably retired. He died, after a short illness, on September 10, 1981.
Gendarmerie becomes Federal Police
GENDARMERIE
The gendarmerie was the fourth military power of the country, next to the army, the navy and the air force. But after 150 years of Belgian independency, that changed. The eighties were a turning point. In the early nineties, the Gendarmerie went through a metamorphosis. The Penecostal government agreemends announced the demilitarization. The command put it as follows:
“Henceforth, the gendarmerie is a general police service with jurisdiction over the whole empire for the administrative and judicial police. That change of course implies amendments to the statute of the staff, of the principles of operation and the adjustment of the districts into judicial districts.”
FEDERAL POLICE
But the most fundamental reorganization in the history of the gendarmerie was still to be done and was accelerated by the “Dutroux affair”. On April 1, 2001, the state police was transformed into the Federal Police. The Gendarmerie was dead. Long live the Federal Police! That day, most gendarmes of the brigades went over to the local police. Most members of the Monitoring and Investigation Brigade and the general staff went to the federal police. Lieutenant General Herman Fransen, who was the last Commander of the Gendarmerie, became the first Commissioner General of the federal police.
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