Status: 04/04/2023 12:17 p.m
The study to examine everyday police work, which was initiated after persistent allegations of racism, provides the first interim results. The officials complain about deficiencies, but also suggest questionable tendencies.
The police officers of the Federal Republic have to complain about a few shortcomings in their everyday work. This comes from a commissioned by the Federal Ministry of the Interior Study on everyday life and attitudes in the police force out. A first interim report contains information about the workload, stress factors and satisfaction of the civil servants.
The study was commissioned by the former Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) at the German Police University after suspected cases of right-wing extremism increased in security authorities. The aim was to analyze everyday police work and the relationship between state and society. This includes violence and hatred towards police officers. Seehofer vehemently rejected a pure racism study that only refers to the police.
The online survey took place in the various federal states as well as at the Federal Police and the Federal Criminal Police Office at different times. It started in November 2021 and ended in October 2022. All employees were invited to participate. However, participation was voluntary.
Officials complain about shortcomings
The unpredictability of working hours and lack of equipment are among the stress factors about which riot police officers complain particularly frequently. On the other hand, those who work for the criminal police or the police often experience a lack of staff and dealing with victims of crime as stress factors.
Contact with victims is experienced as particularly stressful when the victims are children or people who were previously known to the members of the police force. “Dissatisfaction with the justice system, particularly with regard to law enforcement” was frequently cited as a problem in all police units.
One in five participants in the study reported that they had experienced at least one colleague refusing to perform official duties in the past year. 29 percent of the participants in the survey reported violations of official duties that they had observed. However, the relationship with colleagues was generally assessed as positive for the most part.
Racism in the police?
Managers and law enforcement officials were also confronted with the allegations of racism in the study. A frequent reaction of the interviewees was the reference to “unfortunate individual cases”.
“Misanthropic positions,” it says in summary, “can be found in the police as well as in the general population.” However, almost 30 percent of those surveyed tended to devalue asylum seekers. Almost 10 percent show hostility towards Muslims in their answers. Almost every fifth person supports chauvinistic attitudes or does not clearly disagree.
According to the interim report, younger employees and police officers with fewer years of service tend to be less likely to be discriminated than older employees. The researchers believe that the extent to which age or experience in everyday working life are decisive factors needs to be examined more closely
After all, according to the study, 14 percent agreed with the statement, which can be assigned to conspiracy narratives, that there are “secret organizations that have a great deal of influence on political decisions”. About one in five respondents supported the statement that demonstrations are “often just a cover for people who want to make a riot.”