Leuven Traffic Blitz Nets 60 Fines and Six Licence Withdrawals

A large-scale traffic enforcement operation on three main access roads into Leuven on Saturday evening produced 60 official fines and six immediate driving licence withdrawals, as local police deployed some 80 officers — including 23 trainee inspectors getting their first taste of real-world enforcement. According to VRT NWS, 692 vehicles were checked at posts on the Diestsesteenweg in Kessel-Lo, the Aarschotsesteenweg and the Tiensesteenweg.

A Training Exercise at Full Scale

The operation was mounted at the request of the PIVO police academy, whose Leuven branch opened in December 2025. Trainee inspectors from the school were paired one-on-one with experienced officers, conducting the checks themselves while their mentors retained ultimate control of each stop.

“The scale of the operation is quite exceptional,” said Mathieu Caudron, head of the traffic police division for the Leuven police zone. “It came at the request of the police school, so that the trainees get the chance to put the theory of recent months into practice while we guide them one-on-one.” He added that the trainees “work side by side as equal colleagues, but the supervisor keeps control.”

For Eline Matthys, ten months into her training and due to graduate on 1 December, it was her first large-scale traffic action. “I found it exciting, because I didn’t really know what to expect,” she told ROBtv. “But it’s really nice to experience and to see your fellow students at work.” Fellow trainee Obe Lefever described it as “a very good practical experience,” noting that having cars arrive “on a conveyor belt” allowed the trainees to continuously test for alcohol, drugs, vehicle documents and driving licences.

What the Checks Turned Up

Sober driving was the primary focus. Nine breath tests returned an excessive alcohol reading. Four of those drivers had their licences immediately withdrawn for 15 days, while the remaining five were ordered to leave their vehicles parked for 12 hours. Two drivers tested positive for drugs and also lost their licences on the spot for 15 days.

The operation yielded a further crop of offences. Four drivers were found with expired technical inspections, six could not produce a valid driving licence, and two were uninsured — their cars were towed. Seven drivers or passengers were not wearing seatbelts, and at least one defective light was found on four vehicles. A drug dog found usable quantities of soft drugs in two cars, which were confiscated.

Supporting agencies played a distinctive role. Customs checked the fuel tanks of 20 diesel drivers, all of which were in order, and collected two outstanding fines totalling €1,037. One motorist with an unpaid fine of €2,086 could not pay, so the vehicle was provisionally seized. As HLN reported, a police drone monitored the operation from the air.

Testing the Theory — and Testing Drivers

Beyond the enforcement numbers, the operation offered a window into how Belgium’s police training is evolving. The Leuven branch of PIVO was set up precisely to ease access to the profession in a province facing a staffing shortfall — a 11.5% understaffing figure that provincial deputy Tom Dehaene (CD&V) highlighted when the pilot was announced, VRT NWS reported in July 2025. Commuting to the academy’s main campus in Asse had been a barrier for some candidates, so bringing the basic inspector training to the Politiehuis on Leuven’s Philipssite was intended to draw recruits closer to the city where they would eventually serve.

That decentralisation bears fruit in operations like Saturday’s. The trainees’ classroom knowledge of breath testing, document checks and drug detection met the reality of a busy evening on three arterial roads. As Lefever put it, the trainees had wanted to encounter drivers who were not in order, so they could learn how to handle those cases — and Matthys admitted as much with a smile: “I secretly hope that a few people are not entirely in order, so we can experience that and know what to do with it.”

Part of a Broader Pattern

The operation fits a recurring approach in Leuven. In June 2026, a comparable large-scale alcohol check on three access roads tested 1,126 drivers and resulted in six immediate licence withdrawals, with a drug dog and a vehicle seizure also featured, VRT NWS recounted. The Leuven police zone’s Safety Plan for 2026-2031 lists traffic accidents with injuries and fatalities among its external priorities, giving such operations a clear policy rationale.

Public reaction at the roadside was largely supportive. “I think it’s important that everything is checked and that everyone is in order,” one driver told ROBtv. Another added that checking everyone properly is “added value” because “that way everyone can be safe on the road.”

What to Watch

With 23 trainees now applying months of theory on live roads and graduating in December, further joint operations are likely. The immediate takeaway for motorists in and around Leuven is unchanged: the three main access roads remain a favoured location for large-scale checks, and the combination of alcohol tests, drug dogs, drones and tax enforcement means that being in order — licence, insurance, inspection and sobriety — is no longer optional.