What can the police do?

2023-05-17 09:20:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

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What form of force can the police use? A research team examined 3,300 affected individuals and also spoke with the police. The answers are different.

What can and what does the police dare to do? This question has been repeatedly raised in Germany in recent years - for example at demonstrations and football matches, but also during identity checks. Several videos of police operations were shared on Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #policeviolence. Among them is a video from August 2020, when a 15-year-old boy was searched in Hamburg and attacked by several policemen while he was riding an e-scooter on the street. The police union (GdP) announced at the time that they saw no police violence in the video.

Estimates of the use of force in police actions often vary widely. This issue is addressed by the research project "Physical injuries of police officers at the workplace" (KviAPol), which will be presented in detail in the book "Violence at the workplace. Excessive use of police force and how to deal with it".

Researchers Laila Abdul-Rahman, Hannah Espin Grau, Luise Klaus and Tobias Singelnstein interviewed 3,300 victims of violence and conducted more than 60 interviews with representatives of the police, prosecution, legal system and victim counseling centers. The sample of this research is not representative. QuiAPol is an independent research project and differs from the study on the daily lives of police officers commissioned by former Interior Minister Horst Seehofer during his term.

2,790 investigations against the police

Whether police violence is considered excessive can vary greatly from case to case. In a summary of their results, the research team states that the study refers to procedures "that, from the perspective of the people evaluating them, exceeded the boundaries of what is acceptable." This, they say, does not necessarily mean that violence is classified as illegal.

In 2021, 2,790 investigations were carried out against police forces due to the illegal use of force. In more than 90 percent of suspicious cases, criminal proceedings have been suspended - according to the state prosecutor's office, indictments have been filed in only two percent of cases. In addition, according to the researchers, most of those affected do not even report their cases due to poor prospects for success or fear of consequences. Only 14 percent of respondents stated that a criminal procedure was developed for their case.

According to the study, most of those affected by the excessive use of force have been in contact with the police during demonstrations and political actions (55 percent), followed by cases that occur at football matches and other large events (25 percent). Men are more often affected by the excessive use of force (72 percent).

Serious injuries and psychological consequences

According to the interviewees, violence was used mainly by male police officers under the age of 30. It is said that several patrols were often present in police operations, but not all of them used force. In 26 percent of the cases, the violence was committed by only one policeman. There were often beatings or pushbacks, while tear gas and water cannons also played a role in major incidents.

19 percent of respondents have suffered serious injuries such as broken bones or injuries to the joints of limbs as well as damage to sensory organs. Those affected also reported severe psychological consequences.

Uncertainty when it comes to legal action

"Situations involving the use of force by the police can be described as complex, often confusing and tense actions that are caused by the actions of both parties and that are conditioned by external circumstances," the researchers wrote in a summary of their results. 25 percent of those affected said that the intervention of the police was the reason for the escalation of the situation. However, 19 percent say that disobeying police instructions has led to the escalation of the situation.

In escalated situations, the use of force may be necessary from the perspective of the police. "The law conceives of police violence as an extraordinary power that is permitted only within very narrow limits," the researchers said. Police officers have emphasized many times in interviews that they abide by the law. But it has been shown that "the use of force is part of everyday police work and is being normalized accordingly," according to the researchers. They state that there is uncertainty and different interpretations of what is considered legal.

The researchers found that the threshold for what is described as excessive use of force is relatively high for police officers. For those affected, on the other hand, it was not only a question of whether the use of force was legal, but also of its legitimacy - ie. whether the police action was perceived as fair or not.

"Establishing Dominance"

According to the researchers, it is precisely the duty of the police to clarify situations and explain the norms for the use of measures during interventions. The use of force by the police is a practice to establish dominance in certain situations.

"For those who are affected by the excessive use of force by the police, for example, a situation arises where they can hardly exercise their rights without mechanisms that oppose the dominance of the police", say the researchers./ DW