Rotterdam police chief shocked by racism, sexism report, despite earlier issues

Rotterdam police chief Fred Westerbeke said he was shocked by the conclusions of an investigation into complaints of racism, bullying, and sexism at the city center police unit. The Rotterdam police have had several earlier issues with racism, discrimination, and misogyny at other police units.

On Tuesday, NRC revealed that the Rotterdam police asked an Amsterdam agency to investigate the city center unit, where around 230 cops work, after multiple complaints about racism, discrimination, sexual harassment, bullying, alcohol consumption, and excessive force. The agency concluded that there is an “unsafe working environment” at the police unit. Six anonymous cops from the unit told NRC about a colleague who has been on sick leave for months due to persistent racism from other cops while those responsible continue to work without consequences.

“As unit management, we are shocked by the conclusions that have come out of the report; they are not pleasant, and we also expressed this at the end of June during the presentation of the results to the entire team,” Rotterdam police chief Westerbeke said in a statement.

According to Westerbeke, the police management deliberately asked the Amsterdam agency to investigate underlying patterns. “Knowing that with this investigation, we are bringing up pain that cannot be solved 1, 2, 3,” he said. “The results show that things are not going well on several fronts within the team, including in the area of leadership and manners.”

There is “really no more room for bullying, misogynistic behavior, and racism” at the Rotterdam police, Westerbeke said. “We are adopting the conclusions and recommendations from the report.” That includes improving the leadership style and tackling discrimination.

In recent years, the Rotterdam police have regularly faced criticism due to discrimination and sexism by cops. In 2022, Westerbeke had to apologize for a cop using a racial slur during an arrest.

Several WhatsApp groups have also been discovered in which Rotterdam cops made unacceptable statements. Early this year, six Rotterdam cops were punished for “misogynistic and discriminatory” statements in such a WhatsApp group. One officer was fired.

In 2020, the police investigated racist statements by nine Rotterdam cops in a WhatsApp group of the Marconiplein police station. They called ethnically diverse citizens “cancer people” who they would like to “shoot,” among other things. Westerbeke gave several of these cops the lightest possible disciplinary sanction - a written reprimand. According to the police chief, research had shown that these were “good officers” who “sincerely regret” their racism.