Daily work being prioritized over cohesion led to Rotterdam police safety issues; report

The safety on the work floor at the Rotterdam police's Basic Team Center has been neglected for a long time because attention has always been on the daily police work activities and not on the employees. This was stated in a report by the force published on Friday. The NRC had written about the issues in the team earlier this month.

"The personal care for the employees of the team was neglected for a longer time," the report's authors wrote. "The guidance of young officers left a lot to be desired, and there are no customs for addressing each other. Attention for the operations has gone at the cost of working on social cohesion and mutual connections."

The staffing at the Rotterdam city center police team does not reflect the demographics of the Rotterdam population. This is one aspect that at least partially makes the police “inherently vulnerable to risks in the field of social safety and working environment,” the report stated.

“The monocultural aspects within the police culture versus a population with a pluralistic background,” the rapporteurs said describing the situation. They further said it is a “complex task for the police” when considering how the police can be reorganized from a local level up through a national level, a process which is still developing.

Improvements are also needed on the subject of integration. "The current integration structure does not offer much support to people in charge to prevent integrity violations and protecting employees against violations (from inside and outside) and against accusations that are difficult to refute."

The authors said employees do not always find the path to confidential counselors, management, or reporting points. This leads to signals not being caught and followed, which results in staff members being less likely to speak out or report something.

Within the team, there is dissatisfaction with the connections and the insufficient guidance of young colleagues. According to the authors, this goes so far that it has an undermining effect. "The large influx of students in the last few years has led to a relatively large share of young and reasonably inexperienced workers at the Basic Team Center. Their guidance asks a lot from experienced colleagues and adds to the high work pressure."

The report also stated that the team's norms and what is or is not considered desirable behavior and performance are unclear.