Article from het Nieuwsblad (summer time
)
243 police agents are responsible for the security of the members of the royal family and for guarding the royal castles of Laken, Brussels and Ciergnon. This costs about 14 million euro a year. The federal police will have to make a financial cut of about half a million euro next year, and therefor proposed to put more cameras - who are also more modern and efficient - on the royal domaines. New gates around the residences would also make police lives easier. For example, the castle of Ciergnon is guarded day and night, but is empty most of the year.
Queen Paola has refused the option of more and better cameras because she feels this would intrude (even more) in her private life. A "source" also said "the king and queen do not want to get the feeling they're living in a prison camp".
http://www.nieuwsblad.be/Article/Detail.aspx?articleID=DMF01082008_007