The Dutch police recently announced a “record number” of 2,300 weapon seizures from minors in 2025, claiming a surge from 1,800 in 2022. However, a closer look at their own data and imagery reveals a process of statistical laundering that criminalizes utility tools and targets marginalized youth through demographic profiling. The Example: A Tool Framed as a Threat The police often use professional photography to illustrate these “dangerous weapons”. In one prominent image, an officer holds a black folding knife. An OSINT analysis identifies this object as the Walther Emergency Rescue Knife (ERK). Legal Status: This is a commercially available tool sold legally in stores. Function: It is specifically designed as a life-saving tool, featuring a glass breaker and a belt cutter for emergency situations. Technical Compliance: According to the official Customs (Douane) flowchart, this knife is legally NOT a weapon because it has only one cutting edge and is under 28 cm in length. By using a rescue tool to represent “prohibited weapons,” the police perform “Linguistic Capture”—redefining a neutral utility object as a criminal instrument before any legal investigation into its use has occurred. Statistical Laundering and Enforcement Intensity The police admit they do not know the “true scope” of weapon possession among youth; their numbers only reflect how often they choose to seize items. Furthermore, they acknowledge that the “increase” is partly due to changes in counting methods and “increased attention” from officers. The Trap: This creates an unfalsifiable loop. Any seizure—even of a legal rescue tool—is used as evidence that a “weapon problem” exists, which in turn justifies more seizures. This isn’t a measure of crime; it is a measure of enforcement intensity. Legal Discrimination: The Double Standard The sources highlight a deep systemic bias in how the law is applied. Under Category IV sub 7 of the Weapons Act, a legal tool only becomes a “weapon” based on the “nature and circumstances” of its discovery. This grants police total discretion to decide who is a criminal:

👋 A huge welcome to all the new members! I’m so glad you’re here! I built this space to share what I’m learning, what I’m working on, and the OSINT rabbit holes and questions I’m chewing on. The more I hear from you, the better it gets. To kick things off: what’s one thing you’d love to see more of here? Could be a topic, a type of OSINT deep-dive, a resource, a specific question, anything goes. Drop your thoughts below 👇 or send me a message!

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Shiny Hunters breached Dutch universities. Real names, social security numbers, dates of birth.all sitting in leaked databases now. This adds to a growing pool of stolen data accessible to OSINT professionals and hackers alike. Earlier this year, Odido got hit. KPN got hit in December. Prior other universities got hit. So where’s the line between legitimate open source intelligence and accessing stolen data? Traditionally OSINT meant publicly available information: Google searches, government registers, the Wayback Machine. But now leaked databases from telecom breaches, university data dumps, they’re becoming part of the landscape. If you’re doing OSINT research or investigations, how do you even know if your sources are legitimately public or stolen? The answer matters, because this trend isn’t slowing down.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Often people ask, where do I start with OSINT? I could tell you to use Google better, or hand you a list of tools. But honestly, the skills that made me a skilled OSINT practitioner came from reading Wikipedia as a kid, picking up bits of knowledge about nearly everything. When I wonder something, I have reference points to fall back on. But everyone’s got a different background, different education, different skillset. Nobody’s better than anybody else when you account for all that. The real way to test your OSINT skills in practice? Head to r/HelpMeFind on Reddit. People post questions there asking for help locating things. Could be literally anything: commercial products, old vintage items, video games, car parts, lost family members, family history, obscure media. It’s up to you to find it. Real queries, real people, real practice. No simulations, no textbook scenarios. Just genuine investigations where someone actually needs the answer. Here’s one of mine: a user was looking for a Russian artist’s interactive website with rooms and levels. Found it in seconds. That’s the game. Sharpen the toolkit. Start digging.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ https://www.reddit.com/r/HelpMeFind/s/5X1RdBES0w