Germany has its first federal police commissioner

Uli Grötsch, a 48-year-old lawmaker of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and a former federal police officer, is Germany's first-ever federal police commissioner.

The center-left government under SPD leadership had decided to create the new office after several cases of negligence or misconduct within the police and other security agencies came to light.

In recent years, Germany has seen numerous reports of racism within the police force and systematic acts of racial profiling — unprovoked identity checks due to the skin color or other external characteristics of an individual.

Following a number of far-right extremist and racist attacks in Germany, there were also reports of far-right chat groups within police forcesin several federal states. And the police were accused of failure in the search for members of the National Socialist Underground (NSU) right-wing terrorist group. Grötsch was chairman of the parliamentary committee of inquiry in the Bundestag investigating this matter.

Creating a safe space for reporting police misconduct

SPD representative Sebastian Hartmann underlined the importance of introducing a police commissioner so that individuals can make complaints in confidence.

"There are also people from within the police force itself who point out individual cases of police misconduct," Hartmann said. 

But in January 2024, when the center-left majority in the Bundestag voted to install a police commissioner, there was also vehement criticism from the opposition.

'No professional group is under greater public scrutiny than the police'

Hendrik Hoppenstedt of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) said introducing such a commissioner was an expression of a "palpable mistrust" of the police.

He suggested spending the money on hiring more police officers rather than on a police commissioner to check on them.

Steffen Janich from the far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) expressed a similar view: "Even today, no professional group in the public service is under greater public scrutiny than the police," he argued.

Grötsch will be responsible for two large and one smaller unit: The Federal Police responsible for border protection, railway policing, maritime and aviation security, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), Germany's central criminal investigation agency, and the police force protecting the Bundestag.

Police commissioners not a new idea

There have long been independent police commissioners in the US, Canada, Australia and the UK. And the concept is not completely new in Germany either. Germany has a federal structure and is made up of 16 states, each of which operates a state criminal police force. Over the past few years, eight of the 16 states have introduced police commissioners. The impact this has had has been criticized as minimal.

Police researcher Hartmut Aden from the Berlin School of Economics and Law told the TAZ daily that he finds the powers of the commissioners in the federal states to be inadequate.

"In many cases, they can only attempt to explain the actions of the police. So the police commissioner is ultimately doing public relations work for the police," Aden said.

Germany has several federal commissioners: The best known is the Commissioner for the Armed Forces, Eva Högl, an independent contact person for servicemen and women. The Free Democrat (FDP) Pascal Kober is the special commissioner for terror victims and their relatives. Civil rights activist Evelyn Zupke is the commissioner who supports people suffering from the health and financial consequences of the communist dictatorship in the former East Germany (GDR).

This article was originally written in German.

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