Amsterdam to step up fight against police ethnic profiling
The Amsterdam mayor, police and Public Prosecution Service will further tighten the approach to ending ethnic profiling by the police, following a report by Bureau Beuke that the current approach is insufficient, AD reports.
Bureau Beuke looked into the Amsterdam police's approach to ethnic profiling. The agency concluded that the police are taking steps in the right direction, but the current policy to combat ethnic profiling has not been sufficiently implemented to be effective. "Although the chosen direction of changing the knowledge, attitude and behavior of police officers provides a basis for the future, there is too little anchoring in the team plans and too much non-commitment in the approach", the researchers said.
People with a non-Western background are still too often stopped by the police for no good reason. A quarter of all complaints about ethnic profiling by the police came from Amsterdam last year. This leads to feelings of exclusion and pain among the affected Amsterdam residents, the Amsterdam triangle of mayor, police and prosecutor said.
To further combat this problem, the triangle will adopt all recommendations made in the report. This includes making investments in police leadership so that more attention is paid to ethnic profiling, and direction given to combating this issue. Citizens will be involved more in the approach, to help think about policy and give feedback on whether it works. And there will be additional investments into helping police officers be more professional in their checks.
The triangle will also start additional research into citizens' perspectives on ethnic profiling, and the police will make a new plan of action to address this problem more effectively.