At the request of the Limburg governor, a preliminary study is being conducted on the possibilities and feasibility of a merger between the police zones Sint-Truiden-Gingelom-Nieuwerkerken, Canton Borgloon, Tongeren-Herstappe and possibly also the police zone Bilzen-Hoeselt-Riemst. The study provides answers to the following questions:

RQ1. What is the level of support for a merger among those in charge of the police zones in the municipalities concerned?

RQ2. What scenarios do those in charge envisage? In what form, at what level and with which partner do they wish to cooperate?

RQ3. According to those in charge of the police zones, what preconditions must be met in order to engage in scaling-up?

RQ4. For each scenario, what will be the potential financial impact on the municipal allocations of the participating municipalities?

RQ5. How will local anchoring be safeguarded in a larger organisational context and to what extent can a larger police zone adequately respond to local needs?

RQ6. How do police zones fill their basic functionalities today, what are the organisational strengths and weaknesses, and what thresholds can be identified to go into scale? How can these thresholds be reversed?

RQ7. What is the potential impact on the governance of a new merger zone and how can governance and democratic control of a potential merger zone be strengthened?

To answer these questions, a mixed-method research design based on both qualitative and quantitative research and phased with different actors is proposed. The research design involves an in-depth analysis of the police zones involved, a poll on support among respondents, analysing the scenarios and finally presenting a feasible picture of a merger operation.