For some, police checks are hardly worth mentioning; others experience them as racist discrimination. According to a study, “racial profiling” is an “empirical reality.” The police union sees it differently.
For certain people it’s fairly routine: the police ask them to show their ID on the train, at the station or in public places. This is unfortunate for those affected if they consider their external appearance to be “not typically German” but, for example, were born in Germany, have long had a German passport or a legal residence permit – and are not guilty of any crime. From the appearance it is difficult to draw conclusions about the origin, let alone about criminal energies.
Such control routines are the subject of a recently published evaluation of a nationwide survey Telephone survey by the Expert Council for Integration and Migration: Of around 15,000 respondents, five percent said they had been checked by the police at least once in a public place in the twelve months before the survey (end of 2021 to mid-2022). Of these, 8.3 percent perceived themselves as foreign based on external characteristics; 4.4 percent said no.
Basic law versus police routine?
Absolute numbers are not available from the survey. However, the database is reliable enough for the Council of Experts to conclude “that racial profiling in Germany is an empirical reality.” “Racial profiling” refers to the accusation that the police are more likely to check people with a supposedly “foreign” appearance on suspicion of criminal activity. “Police checks that are based on external characteristics and are not behaviorally motivated represent inadmissible unequal treatment and violate the constitutional ban on discrimination,” criticizes the Council of Experts in this context.
Alexander Tischbirek, a law professor at the University of Regensburg and involved in the Office for the Implementation of Equal Treatment eV based in Berlin, also refers to the constitution, or more precisely to Article 3 Paragraph 3 of the Basic Law. For the NGO, Tischbirek defends people in court who consider themselves victims of “racial profiling”. “Whenever skin color, for example, plays a key criterion for controls, we are in the area of prohibition in our constitution,” explains Tischbirek.
Controls due to “unauthorized entry”
Unprovoked personal checks are regulated in the Federal Police Act, in Article 22 Paragraph 1a “to prevent or prevent unauthorized entry into the federal territory”. The standard was introduced after border controls in the Schengen area were abolished; But it now serves as a kind of “all-purpose weapon against all sorts of undesirable things,” criticizes Tischbirek.
Instead of random identity checks, the responsible Federal Ministry of the Interior speaks of “situation-dependent interviews” upon request. These would be “carried out without discrimination”. Also, “no people are interviewed and checked based on their skin color, gender, religion or based on other clues such as ethical origins.”
However: The Federal Police only records the total number of those they check. In 2022 there were 1,873,411 people, from January to October this year 1,529,721. “The checks of any identity documents, such as passports, are not statistically recorded by the Federal Police,” says the Federal Ministry of the Interior. So who exactly is being controlled and with what motivation remains in the dark.
“Is it because I’m black?”
Not so in the case of the Nigerian refugee Prince, who lives in a collective accommodation in Wolfratshausen, Upper Bavaria. In conversation with the daily News The 33-year-old reports that he was stopped by the police on the way from the S-Bahn to his accommodation on a July evening in 2020. She asked him for his ID – according to his account, only him and no other of the many commuters who got off.
“Is it because I’m black?” he asked the police. They told him to look for drug dealers, whereupon they subjected the Nigerian to a body search – in the train station building, in public, without finding anything.
Certainly an extreme example. But: He did not report the public humiliation for fear of risking his stay in Germany. He was still with the police on site, as confirmed by an inquiry to the Wolfratshausen police station. The officers, who did not fall under the jurisdiction of the local police, clearly crossed a line, the department said; Nevertheless, there is a problem with drug dealers from Africa.
According to Bavarian police statistics for 2022, more than a third of the 256,036 suspects – 93,375 people – did not have a German passport. Crimes under immigration law are already excluded here. Non-German suspects came by far from Romania, followed by Turkey and Poland. Among the crimes investigated by suspects without a German passport, drug-related offenses (14.6 percent) came in fourth place.
However, an African country like Nigeria, from which the controlled refugee comes, is not among the ten countries from which most foreign suspects came.
“A feeling of humiliation”
Those who are in good standing and who, like Prince, have foreign roots are left with the uneasy feeling of being particularly targeted by the police. They can be heard at the Munich advice center “Before” for those affected by right-wing and group-related inhumane violence and discrimination. Those seeking help there reported a “strong feeling of powerlessness” during the police check, says “Before” employee Lea Tesfaye.
Those affected are usually alone in the situation, face several officers and there are usually no independent witnesses or people who take their side, says Tesfaye. “Nevertheless, the controls take place in public spaces. And that’s why factors such as shame or a feeling of humiliation play a major role.”
The advisory center cannot provide reliable figures regarding “racial profiling”. Although the number of consultations on the topic increased, this does not necessarily mean that the number of cases also increased. Perhaps this is “just” due to a growing awareness among those affected. In any case, Tesfaye can say this much: “That racial profiling, racist police actions and police violence are always part of our work.”
Nationwide police study expected by the end of 2024
A nationwide police study initiated by the Federal Ministry of the Interior – then still under Horst Seehofer (CSU) – is intended to shed light on the allegations of racism against the police and will run until the end of 2024. For a first interim report, which appeared in April of this year, the study organizers evaluated almost 51,000 questionnaires sent to civil servants throughout Germany (with the exception of Baden-Württemberg and Hamburg). It says: “The general statement that there are too many foreigners in Germany is agreed by 14 percent of those surveyed, and around 21 percent are ambivalent about this.”
Of course, this opinion does not allow conclusions to be drawn about “racial profiling” as a fundamental problem in the police. The term doesn’t even appear in the interim report. Jan Pfeil, deputy state chairman of the Bavarian Police Union, advocates for a differentiated view: Profiling naturally plays a role at work if there is a concrete investigation approach. “But I wouldn’t add the word ‘racial’ to it,” says Pfeil.
New design of the Police Act
However, the Regensburg lawyer Alexander Tischbirek criticizes “the controls as such,” which are standardized by the Federal Police Act. “You might think: Oh, then just show your ID and that’s it. But you shouldn’t underestimate the exclusionary effect. If this happens with constant regularity, it does something to people and we shouldn’t ignore that.”
The Federal Ministry of the Interior has now submitted a draft bill that is intended to amend the controversial paragraph 22 paragraph 1a in the Federal Police Act. Controls independent of suspicion would then still be possible. However, the draft grants those checked the fundamental right to “immediately request a certificate of the measures and their reason” from the police.
Too much additional bureaucracy, says Jan Pfeil from the Bavarian Police Union. Nevertheless, “racial profiling” could be proven – or refuted – by figures from the police themselves for the first time.