Complaints of racial profiling by Dutch cops now addressed in app

From today people in the Netherlands can file complaints about ethnic profiling by the police via the police app. The Dutch police extended the app in an effort to get more insight into how often people feel that they were unfairly checked because of their appearance, and how often this feeling is justified, NOS reports.

People who feel that they were the victim of ethnic profiling, can now report this via a special form on the police app. Previously this could only be done on the police website or at a police station.

"Ethnic profiling happens, just like the police being wrongly accused of ethnic profiling. Through this app we will get a better view on it", Peter Slot, responsible for diversity at the police, said to NOS.

The police are also working on a way in which information on previous checks on a vehicle is automatically supplied when a registration number is checked.

Ethnic profiling made headlines in the Netherlands again earlier this year when rapper Typhoon was pulled over and the police officer acknowledged this was because his skin color and the fancy car he was driving aroused suspicion. Feyenoord goal keeper Kenneth Vermeer later also came forward to say that the same happened to him.