Police in North Rhine-Westphalia
Photo:
Friso Gentsch / DPA
There were chasms that opened up in the North Rhine-Westphalian police last autumn.
In WhatsApp groups of a Mülheim service group, there were racist messages and pictures that glorified National Socialism.
A »deep brown sauce« was revealed, according to North Rhine-Westphalia's Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) at the time.
Now the final report of the urgently set up staff unit is available.
The 18 recommendations for action named therein are intended to bring about changes in personnel development, more supervision and psychological support.
According to Reul in Düsseldorf on Wednesday, there are no extremist networks in the police.
But they want to "give the democratic defense system a boost, a vitamin cure, reload again."
The officers should become "more resilient" to extremism, says Reul.
This »Boost« is a two-volume final report, authored by Uwe Reichel-Offermann.
He was deputy head of the NRW constitutional protection.
Then Reul made him a few days before the allegations against the Mülheim officials became public, by calling the special commissioner and head of the "staff unit for right-wing extremist tendencies in the North Rhine-Westphalia police".
There has been "more xenophobia in Germany for five to six years," says Reichel-Offermann now.
“The police can't ignore that either.
The police do not ignore what happens on the internet - even if that is of course absolutely unacceptable. "
What investigators found in the chat groups by chance was more than unacceptable: Wehrmacht soldiers with machine guns that were brought into position against refugees, glorifications of Hitler, blacks who were despised with the N-word, stylized gas chambers.
It was a repulsive collection of racist and right-wing extremist border crossings.
"We're not just talking about political extremism," said Reichel-Offermann.
This is also about group-related misanthropy.
In order to "significantly reduce such views in the police and have significantly fewer cases in the future", there is a lot to be done.
Professionalism has to be promoted, leadership strengthened, practice changed and values communicated.
You also have to "become more professional in understanding how social media work," says the intelligence service.
For Reichel-Offermann, for example, communication is an essential tool used by the police; it demands greater sensitivity.
"It's not about linguistic subtleties - but about principles of decency." For this to work, teaching materials for prospective police officers, for example, should be checked for questionable terms and, if necessary, changed, and social skills and self-reflection should be strengthened.
According to SPIEGEL information, the Essen police force has been using a "small formulation guide" that recommends "sensitive language rules" since March.
For example, the police should no longer speak of “asylum seekers” but of “asylum seekers” in their internal communication.
"Colored people" become "black people" and "mentally handicapped" should mean "cognitively impaired".
"Too little psychological expertise"
In the everyday life of the police, more psychosocial support is needed, said Reichel-Offermann.
How many experts are needed, Reichel-Offermann cannot say, there is a big difference in personnel between the Olpe and Cologne Presidiums, for example.
But it was already clear to him before the final report: "We in the police had too little psychological expertise."
There is also talk of stronger networking of the authorities with "quarters", of supervision or of the introduction of a value management system.
But at the moment these are all just recommendations for action.
For Interior Minister Reul this should "go in this direction from tomorrow", the document is a treasure trove for political decisions.
“But we don't say: we'll do all of this tomorrow.
We'll take a look at it, «says Reul.
Some things can only be changed in the process.
Reichel-Offermann considers his work to be a condensed, manageable report.
Everything else is the responsibility of the ministry.
“Citizens can be extremists and may have to put up with being monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
But a police officer, a public servant, is not allowed to do that, «said the special adviser.
In the three years from 2017 on which the final report deals, 273 proceedings were initiated against NRW police officers on suspicion of right-wing tendencies.
72 of these have already been completed.
Apparently the suspicions were not confirmed in most of these cases.
"There were no or only weak sanctions," it says on page 30 of the report.
Even right-wing extremist chat messages are often difficult to deal with under criminal law.
The criminal offense of sedition presupposes a public effect.
According to lawyers, this is rarely the case in closed WhatsApp groups.
Interior Minister Reul therefore hopes to be able to use disciplinary law against the perpetrators in such cases.