GERMANY: Racist stop and search: does not exist if not recorded
01 March 2001
On 1 September 1998 arbitrary stop and search powers (known as Schleierfahndung in police regulations) were written into Federal Border Guard Law (§22(1a) Bundesgrenzschutzgesetz - BGSG). Under the official rationlae of fighting “illegal” entry and “organised crime”, the new provisions gave border police powers to stop and search any individual without specific evidence (“reasonable suspicion”) indicating criminal behaviour (see Statewatch vol 10 no 5 for a more detailed account). Now a parliamentary question by the socialist faction (Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus - PDS) in parliament has revealed that no data on the national or ethnic background of stop and search subjects or on complaints lodged against a police officer's conduct is being recorded.
The introduction of “non-suspect related” stop and search powers has been marked by controversy, with the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern constitutional court having declared parts of the Schleierfahndung unconstitutional on 21 October 1999. The Upper House of the parliament only ratified §22(1a) BGSG for a specific period (until 31.12.03), after which it would have to be reviewed. When the government was questioned about its plans to prevent racist conduct by Federal Border Guard officers (a Nigerian student filed a complaint after being intimidated in an operation in Trier), the PDS MP Ulla Jelpke was told that the official's conduct had not been racist and discriminatory. Further elaboration was not possible as the BGS did not record complaints about racist conduct. Jelpke described this response as a “scandal”, accusing the government of following the reasoning that “where there is not statistical information, racism and other misconduct cannot be proven”.
Despite only 3.5% of arbitrary stop and search operations detecting actual “crimes”, the government still contends that §22(1a) BGSG represents “an important contribution in the prevention or restriction of illegal entries”. During the first six months of last year, 280,728 people were arbitrarily stopped and searched by BGS officers at Germany's borders, railway stations and other control points; 797 of these were found to have entered Germany “irregularly”. It remains unclear how the government is to assess the law's contribution towards racist conduct without recording complaints or the ethnic minority background of those subjected to arbitrary stop and search. Although the government is obliged to conduct a “continuous evaluation” of the new regulations before the reassessment in December 2003, its evaluation procedures fall far short of those demanded by civil rights and anti-racist groups.
Parliamentary question by MP Ulla Jelpke and the PDS faction (14/3937, 24.7.00); Answer by the government (14/3990, 14.8.00); Heute im Bundestag (no 215, 29.8.00), PDS press release no 2071 (3.1.00) and 2535 (16.3.01)