Zurich and Berne criticise directive on research system
Keystone-SDA
The Zurich and Bern cantonal police forces will continue to mention the skin colour of wanted persons in the Ripol system. The canton of Bern does not agree with the new directive from the Federal Office of Police (Fedpol), which it considers to be erroneous.
We do not agree with Fedpol’s decision to stop mentioning skin colour in the Ripol search system, writes Zurich government member Philipp Müller in a letter sent to the federal office on Wednesday.
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The cantonal director of security said he was “surprised, as it seems that no attempt has been made to involve the cantons, which are responsible for internal security, and in particular the cantonal police forces, which are an essential part of the criminal prosecution chain”.
‘Wrong and unhelpful’
Müller went on to criticise the decision for being “objectively wrong”, as it unnecessarily complicates the investigative work of police forces in important cases. In his letter, Müller calls on Fedpol to reverse its decision and enter into dialogue with the cantons.
His counterpart in Zurich, Mario Fehr, was quoted in the NZZ paper as saying that the directive, which is intended to follow a widespread practice abroad, was “not very useful” and “politically motivated”. The Zurich police confirmed that they will continue to refer to all important characteristics, which in their view include skin colour.
For their part, the Fribourg and Geneva cantonal police forces have taken note of the directive issued last week by Fedpol. Its application requires “an in-depth analysis of the operational context in particular”, explains the Geneva cantonal police.
The Fribourg police, for their part, feel that it is too early for any concrete action at this stage, and will be analysing the possible impact of Fedpol’s decision.
Across the Sarine, the Basel cantonal police say they will continue to use the Ripol database as proposed, while the Lucerne police intend to comply with Fedpol directives. Their counterparts in Ticino point out that the Ripol database is the responsibility of the Federal Office.
Rare use
According to the Fedpol, mentioning the colour of a person’s skin (white, black or brown) when issuing an alert had been called into question for some time. Discussions with foreign partners showed that skin colour was not used as a precise description in some agencies, notably Interpol.
As a result, this criterion was already virtually no longer used as an element of the alert in the Swiss search system, where it appeared in less than 1% of cases. The Neuchâtel cantonal police have also indicated that their computer system does not allow skin colour to be mentioned and that they have therefore never used this concept.
Descriptive aid Vs racial profiling
According to Patrice Zumsteg, researcher and lecturer in fundamental rights and police law at Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), there are different types of profiling. Descriptive profiling is used in criminal investigations to find out what a wanted person looks like. In this context, skin colour can be a useful criterion, he says.
It only becomes problematic when the opposite approach is adopted where it is assumed that a person is a criminal simply because they belong to a certain ethnic group. This is known as racial profiling. According to Zumsteg, targeted manhunts and racial profiling are two very different things. The removal of typologies such as ‘Asian’, ‘Oriental’ or ‘Slavic’ did not pose a problem.
Adapted from French by DeepL/ac
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