Four police officers in Amsterdam who were members of a racist Whatsapp group where they shared discriminatory texts face being sacked, police said on Friday. 

Six others face a compulsory educational programme focused on “behaviour and integrity” and will lose their jobs if they offend again. The 11th member of the group was given a formal reprimand. 

The officers have two weeks to respond to the charges before the punishments are confirmed, the police statement said.

“Their behaviour has not only damaged confidence in the police but that of their own colleagues,” police chief Frank Paauw said. “That hurts, and it is up to us to take responsibility as a unit.”

The Whatsapp group became public following two separate investigations which led to nine police officers being suspended. 

“This sort of decision is not taken overnight,” Paauw said. “But we need to make these sorts of choices to be a safe and inclusive organisation.”

This is not the first time action has been taken against police officers who express racist views on social media.

Last year, for example, the Zeeland West Brabant police force sacked two officers and moved two others to a new department after an investigation into abusive behaviour and the wrongful use of police weapons.

The police have been struggling to improve their image following a string of racist and discriminatory incidents and serving police officers made dozens of complaints about racist or discriminatory behaviour by colleagues in the six months to April, the NRC reported earlier last year.  

One of the reports involved an officer in The Hague who was sent home after making ‘extremely inappropriate comments’ on social media. The officer is an active member of the far-right PVV party and was a candidate in the local elections in 2022.