The Netherlands – The sharp legal analysis in the ruling of the court of The Hague on ethnic profiling during inspections by the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee (KMar) can also mean something for police work.
Liesbeth Huyzer, deputy chief of police: ‘This judgment shows how alert and careful we must be when it comes to justifications for proactive checks. You cannot compare the KMar checks one-on-one with police checks, activities and powers. But in any case, this is an important statement that also touches on police work. So we want to take a good look at that, learn from it and adjust our working methods where necessary.’
The police is putting together a team of lawyers, operational experts and civil society organizations to explore where the Court’s ruling on KMar has significance for the performance of our police tasks. In addition, it is also examined whether an update is necessary for applicable guidelines for the work, such as the Professional Checking action framework.
Keep looking in the mirror
As the police, we would like to know how our proactive checks are experienced. We measure this, among other things, via the confidence and reputation monitor that will be published again in the spring. Previous research shows that explaining the reason for an inspection is of decisive importance for citizens’ confidence.
The CBS Security Monitor also reflects citizens’ experiences with our working method. From the next measurement, this monitor will also include additional questions about professional checking. In this way we structurally measure how citizens experience our treatment. We are also investigating the familiarity of police officers with the Professional Checking action framework.
This year we will also provide an analysis for the first time of the patterns of checks in the police registration system registered for the year 2022. This mirror will help to discover where improvements can still be made in our proactive checks.
Information source: Politie.nl
