Probably also discovered child porn
Nazi symbols: Authorities are investigating five police officers
8/2/2023 7:53 p.m
A group of young police officers is currently being investigated in NRW. They are said to have exchanged Nazi symbols via chat. The authorities also discovered a video on one of the officers that could be child pornography. Interior Minister Reul is reluctant to comment on the case.
Young police officers in North Rhine-Westphalia are again suspected of having exchanged Nazi symbols in chats during their training. According to the responsible Essen public prosecutor, the five officers between the ages of 22 and 25 are also suspected of owning a video that falls into the category of child pornography. In order to secure possible evidence, private rooms and workplaces of the accused were searched during the day. The investigations and evaluations continued.
The allegations relate to a period of crime in which the men were still in training. After that, three of them worked until the end at the police headquarters in Recklinghausen and one each at the police authorities in Kleve on the Lower Rhine and Borken in the Münsterland. These are probably police commissioners and civil servants on probation. The police headquarters in Recklinghausen announced that discriminatory and inhuman content had also been spread in the chats.
The allegations are so serious, according to police chief Friederike Zurhausen, that she has forbidden the three officers in Recklinghausen to conduct official business. According to Zurhausen, such ideas have no place with the police.
Doubts about character suitability
The official from Borken has also been banned from conducting official business. His colleague from Kleve was transferred internally. NRW Minister of the Interior Herbert Reul described these civil service measures as “the right consequence at the moment”. The police profession requires a special degree of trust, respect and integrity, Reul continued.
“Young civil servants, just like older ones, must stand up for the law and the values of our constitution without a doubt. Anyone who distributes content as it is now in the room raises considerable doubts about his character suitability,” said the CDU politician . The criminal assessment is a matter for the judiciary, and the presumption of innocence applies until the end of the proceedings.
One of many cases
According to a spokeswoman for the investigating public prosecutor’s office in Essen, the suspected cases go back to ongoing proceedings against another young, now former police officer. He is also suspected of having spread anti-constitutional symbols and child pornography.
After a few months as a young commissioner at the police headquarters in Recklinghausen, he was dismissed because of his unsuitability, said a police spokesman from there. Background are also the criminal charges against him. According to the latest ministry information from the end of July, 105 right-wing extremist behaviors have been punished in the North Rhine-Westphalian police over the past six years.
However, at 189, the number of tips that were not relevant to criminal or service law was significantly higher. The legal situation is such that behavior in chats among colleagues is considered non-public and difficult to prosecute as hate speech. As a result, police officers cannot be prosecuted despite posting obviously racist or right-wing extremist content, according to the Interior Ministry.