Swiss police must disclose offenders’ nationality
In Switzerland, the police should always mention the nationality of the perpetrators of crimes when they communicate. On Tuesday, the Senate followed the lead of the House of Representatives in adopting a right-wing proposal to standardise practice at national level.
The decision was taken by 23 votes to 16 in the Senate. The right-wing Swiss People’s Party voted in favour, with the support of a majority of elected representatives from the Centre and the Radical Liberal parties. The House of Representatives had given the green light last September by a narrow margin of 100 votes to 84. Parliament can now draft a bill.
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The proposal stems from a parliamentary initiative tabled by Swiss People’s Party parliamentarian Benjamin Fischer. It calls for the police, when informing the public, to give the age, sex and nationality of perpetrators, suspects and victims, provided that there are no grounds for privacy protection or that no one can be identified in this way.
Last year’s controversy
Last year, a new directive for the cantonal police on reporting crime caused controversy. The federal police Fedpol wanted to remove the mention of skin colour from the Ripol search system.
This decision led to a wave of criticism from police forces and politicians. In the end, the federal police maintained this category, even though it is rarely used.
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