The traffic light coalition wants to take action against police violence. Amnesty International praises and criticizes. Studies show the need for an independent body.
Berlin – Amnesty International criticized the coalition at the first reading of the traffic light law for the federal independent police commissioner on Friday (November 10th). With the Bundestag Police Commissioner, the traffic light coalition wants to create a place where people can report misconduct by officers. The commissioner should also have the right to conduct his own investigations, for example into suspicions of unjustified police violence. The human rights organization welcomes all of this. The opinion is that this is still not enough.
Study: 90 percent of investigations against police officers closed
The “explicit mandate to investigate structural deficiencies and undesirable developments in the police” should also be highlighted positively, says Beate Streicher, Amnesty expert on police and human rights. The past has shown that citizen complaints about police officers “are not investigated independently, quickly and appropriately by the police themselves.” The Frankfurt criminal lawyer and Criminologist Tobias Singelnstein and colleagues confirmed this in the study “Violence in Office” published in May.. 90 percent of investigations against police officers are discontinued and the neutrality of investigations by police officers against police officers can only be assumed “to a limited extent”.
CSU MP sees “no structural problem with right-wing extremism” in the police
That’s why the traffic lights acted. SPD domestic politician Sebastian Hartmann said taz, they are setting “a new standard for a modern police force in a democratic constitutional state”. The opposition CSU sees it differently, Andre Lindholz (CSU) criticized: The office is “completely unnecessary” and shows “distrust” of the police, which has “no structural problem with right-wing extremism”. The traffic light factions agreed on a candidate for the office in February: Uli Grötsch (SPD), a former police officer, should become police commissioner.
Amnesty calls for more “anonymous reporting options” and independence from the public prosecutor’s office
The police commissioner and his employees should have the right to inspect files and make unannounced visits to offices of the Federal Police, BKA and Bundestag Police. If there are “compelling confidentiality reasons that must be explained,” access to the files can be refused. According to Beate Streicher from Amnesty, “anonymous reporting options” and “extensive independence from the public prosecutor’s office” are also needed. According to the current draft law, the body can only promise anonymity to individual whistleblowers. “More powers are needed.” Amnesty also criticized the often inadequate powers of state police officers. In Hesse, the state parliament was unable to agree on a police commissioner before the election.
European Court of Human Rights criticizes German handling of police violence
A new study by the German Institute for Human Rights also recommends independence of public prosecutors in criminal proceedings. It is recommended that such bodies be given rights under the Code of Criminal Procedure. In 2017, the European Court of Human Rights criticized the practice of German public prosecutors of prematurely ending investigations against police officers. As investigative authorities, the public prosecutor’s office and the police depend on each other in everyday criminal prosecution. (kb)
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