By Axel Lier
Since the spring of 2021, the officers of the investigation group (EG) have been investigating in their own ranks. It’s about politically motivated crime by police officers. From August, the group will become its own commissariat for state security. There is internal criticism of the work of colleagues.
Does the capital city police have a problem with right-wing extremists? The trust of the management doesn’t seem to be all that great. Because the new commissariat is given the name “Politically motivated disciplinary offenses” (LKA 536) and is located where the officers investigate right-wing radicals and right-wing extremists.
The EG Zentral became known above all because it repeatedly searched the confiscated mobile phones of employees for allegedly right-wing ideas, photos and videos. Internal police group chats were exposed. In December last year alone, more than 70 police officers were affected.
“After the first legal assessment, the content is not criminal, but relevant to disciplinary and service law,” said a police statement at the time. “The roles of the service staff involved are different and range from active involvement to tolerating the relevant content.”
This is exactly where the criticism lies: “Group chats are evaluated and everyone from this group is suddenly suspicious if investigations are running because of one or more chat participants,” says a BZ police officer. Private chats are also evaluated and lead to investigations.
“But this communication about politics is not public. This does not lead to investigations against persons outside the authority,” the official continued. Sometimes employees of other authorities are summoned as witnesses who write in chats with suspects, and the investigators criticize the “unclean culture of conversation”, as it is called.
The police leadership makes it clear what they expect from their investigators: “Information on facts that are below the criminal liability threshold, but e.g. B. can represent labor or service offenses, checked, analyzed and evaluated.