Policing of Minorities and Police Accountability

In the European Union organizational structures, traditions and citizens’ trust in police differ substantially among the member states. While numbers of police per 100 000 population fluctuate between less than 150 to nearly 500, trust in police indicates an opposed relationship: the lower the numbers and the less money spend on police/ security the higher is trust in police (Kääriännen 2013).

Despite of all the variety there is a common challenge to police in Europe which is the relationship between police and minorities. Whether working migrants and their descendants (e.g. Turks in Germany), traditional resident minorities (e.g. Roma in Hungary) or asylum seekers/ refugees from civil war regions (e.g. Sub-Saharan Africans in Austria), survey results indicate that minority men and women are more frequently subjected to police controls than majority citizens. More often than majority citizens, persons from a minority background feel treated unfairly by officers during encounters with police. At the same time, the victimization rates of minorities are significantly higher while their levels of reporting to police is lower, and this includes instances when they become victims of hate crimes (Goodey 2013).

The European Union has commissioned research aimed at an assessment and an improvement of police-minority relations in the EU member states. The presentation will report findings of such a project (www.corepol.eu). This research project investigates police minority problems and best practice conflict resolution in a wider perspective of restorative justice approaches in Germany, Austria and Hungary.