Dutch police officers have wide powers of discretion which has made them vulnerable to discriminating on grounds of race, says Tilburg University anthropologist Paul Mutsaers in his PhD thesis.

The discrimination manifests itself both on the streets and in the police station, Mutsaers, who also works at the Police Academy, is quoted as saying by RTL news.

In turn, these choices influence crime statistics, Mutsaers says. ‘Take roadblocks where ethnic minorities are disproportionately checked,’ he says. ‘People with a non-western background are over-represented in the figures.’

These statistics are also contributing to a climate which leads to legal measures such as making it a crime to live in the Netherlands without papers and withdrawing passports as punishment, he says.

Focus

Mutsaers says the problem is largely due to current methods of training police officers which encourage them to ‘focus on their own ideas, skills and gut feelings rather than rules’. ‘This means some of them abuse their powers of discretion,’ he says.

There needs to be a return to a more bureaucratic approach to policing with clear responsibilities and a strict division between the individual officer and his role as a policeman or woman, Mutsaers says.

National police chief Gerard Bouman recently called for action to reduce discrimination by police officers.