Police reported 30 incidents of racism by cops in six months

In the past six months, police officers reported 30 incidents of racism or discrimination by their colleagues. The reports mostly came from senior officers, made to the national anti-racism coordinator the police appointed last year, NRC reports.

Deputy Chief of the National Police, Liesbeth Huyzer, would not comment to NRC whether 30 reports in six months is a lot. “That question does not matter. There will be many more reports. What matters is that colleagues report it, that we investigate the reports, and that we respond adequately and unequivocally. Anyone who crosses the line will always feel it, always,” she said.

The most recent incident concerns a police officer in The Hague who got suspended last week after his superior reported him for making “deeply inappropriate comments” on social media. According to NRC, this cop is a member of Geert Wilders’ PVV and was also involved in another recent incident.

Six officers from Oost-Nederland were suspended over a video posted on social media, showing them in Paris shouting “fewer, fewer, fewer” at Morrocan passers-by. The cop from The Hague recorded the video and posted it on his Twitter account. “Fewer Moroccans” was the statement that got Wilders convicted for discrimination and hate speech.

In another recent incident, a Rotterdam cop was fined 500 euros for discrimination. The man, who has been employed by the police for 46 years and is a confidant within the force, told colleagues at the coffee machine: “The (racial slur) who stomp the beans are on break. That’s why it’s taking so long.”

Huyzer said the police cannot and don’t want to prohibit officers from being members of a democratically elected party. But the police want to ensure more emphatically that officers “are neutral in exercising their profession and respect Article 1 of the Constitution. So behavior and statements contrary to the principle of equality and the prohibition of discrimination will have consequences.”

The deputy police chief said the police organization is looking at how it can report incidents of discrimination and racism more transparently. Currently, the police only report that there was inappropriate or transgressive behavior without saying what happened. “In order to really be a learning organization, it is good if we can actually discuss the wrong behavior,” Huizer said.

Three groups of leaders in the police have undergone training to “help them look for their inner racism,” Huizer said, and the training is being expanded to more cops. The police want to make officers “more resilient,” she said. “It must be clear that what they see in a few square kilometers should not lead to stereotypes about an entire population group. Officers must see that certain problems arise from poverty and inequality of opportunity.”