The Problems and Priorities of Surveillance

Using a sensational case of murder from 1899 as a lens, this chapter explores how little the Belgian capital’s authorities really knew about and how little they actively engaged with what they referred to as la pédérastie . It shows that the police lacked both the mandate and the means to focus on something they clearly deemed a minor nuisance. Unlike in Britain and Germany, homosexual relations between consenting adults in private were not illegal. Unlike in France, where the legal situation was similar, Belgium’s more decentralized make-up impeded the formation of effective and efficient law enforcement authorities even in big cities. No unit epitomized the growing pains of an underfinanced police force in a booming city more than the vice brigade. Policing sex in public was difficult and unrewarding. As the records of dismissed cases reveal, the police and the courts regularly found themselves instrumentalized in the settling of personal scores and they were often forced to retreat in frustration over mutual or unverifiable accusations. Most exasperating of all was the insurmountable wall of secrecy, solidarity, bribery, and obstructionism they faced when dealing with the queer world.