Eleven police officers have been suspended for allegedly sending “cross-border messages” in WhatsApp groups. The employees come from the Rotterdam and Amsterdam police units and the Police Service Center, which manages, among other things, the police's IT and finances. These departments have started an investigation into the various WhatsApp groups. That reports the Amsterdam unit Thursday. Nine Amsterdam employees have been suspended, as well as two involved employees from the Police Service Center and the Rotterdam unit.
The police do not report exactly what cross-border messages were involved. However, police chief Frank Pauw of the Amsterdam unit writes the following: “Insult, bullying and discrimination have no place in our police organization and are at odds with the police we want and should be.” He continues that he cannot yet go into details because of the ongoing investigation, but “I take what I have heard so far very seriously.” According to the police, the existence of the WhatsApp groups emerged in two criminal investigations.
The police have repeatedly been discredited in recent years because of these types of WhatsApp groups. For example, in 2020 it turned out that Rotterdam police officers in the so-called 'Jan Smit App Group' had referred to people with a migration background as “cancer people, shitty Africans and pauper immigrants” at whom they wanted to “shoot”.
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