Less bureaucracy makes police more likely to discriminate

"Less bureaucracy and a greater emphasis upon the individual officer's own personality and freedom of action have made the Dutch police highly prone to discrimination against ethnic minorities and to arbitrary behavior." So says researcher Paul Mutsaers of Tilburg University, who is calling for the "reassessment" of bureaucracy in policing, with clear authority and accountability structures and the strict separation of the person and their position. He recommends that police be required to complete a so-called "stop & search form" every time they make an arrest, to establish whether or not it was the result of ethnic profiling. "And every municipality should have a citizens' council, as a democratic counterweight monitoring police work."

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