VIENNA (ANP) – The Netherlands has won praise from the European Union Human Rights Office for adequately monitoring and reporting racism in the police. This courtesy does not mean that everything is going well, but the Netherlands is showing “encouraging practices” to combat racial profiling and racism in the police, according to a report by the European Union office in Vienna on such abuses.
EU countries must adhere to EU conventions on human rights and anti-racism, but in reality they apply this very differently, and this also applies to the police. According to the Human Rights Office, this is worrying because racism during police checks, for example, has devastating, far-reaching social effects “such as feelings of exclusion and undermining trust in the police.”
Under the “Encouraging Practice” chapter, it was praised that police officers in the Netherlands are helped not to arrest people by the gut, but to do so on the basis of a number of fixed characteristics, such as behaviour. There are also technical aids, such as entering a license plate or address into an app, which then indicates whether a particular vehicle or address has been scanned recently. The EU report cites the Dutch Police Academy's evaluation of the practice, which says the results of this approach remain disappointing, but that these guidelines have at least led to increased awareness of racial profiling among Dutch police officers.
In order to put an end to the range of mixed practices in EU countries, the EU Office requires countries to first properly embed the EU conventions on human rights and racism in their national legislation. The European Union Human Rights Office in Vienna also refers to existing EU tools for training police officers, for example. Furthermore, it is desirable to have an independent supervisor of police services, where informants can, for example, submit reports safely. The report notes that the Netherlands has such a supervisor, but this institute cannot impose punitive measures in the Netherlands either. Finally, the report calls for a more systematic treatment of data on racism and misconduct in the police, so that this practice can be better understood and combated. “Only the Czech Republic, Germany and the Netherlands publish data regularly and also at our request.”
