Indicator history

According to German law, the federal police can ask a person to identify him- or herself solely on the basis that he/she is found at a place where the police assumes that persons meet to prepare criminal offences, or that criminals are hiding there (§ 23 II Nr. 1 BPolG). On the basis of this law, the police has repeatedly checked the identity of persons only due to their “foreign appearance”, and cases of police violence have taken place in this context as well (KOP 2010). While there is no evidence that the police proceed systematically in this way, there is evidence that persons coming from former Yugoslavia or from Turkey specifically are, by comparison, checked by the police more often. (KOP 2010; FRA 2010 p. 34f. ; UN 2009).
Furthermore, Data mining (Rasterfahndung) has led to unintentional ethnic profiling (e.g. concerning Muslims). Data mining is a legal practice of the German police to narrow the potential group of suspects in a specific case. By going through various data bases, the police employs a filter for those that show certain characteristics, which again form the profile of the wanted person(s). In general, due to its potentially discriminating effects, Data mining is considered controversial.
In addition, there have been reports of ethnic profiling of Sinti and Roma, Muslims and members of ’recognisable’ (notably black) minority groups (Duvall 2005, p. 16f; Hieronymus 2011).

Sources:

• Duvall, Misti (2005): “Ethnic Profiling by Police in Europe”, in: Open Society Institute (2005): Justice Initiatives: Ethnic Profiling by Police in Europe, pp. 14-25, http://www.soros.org/initiatives/justice/articles_publications/publications/juticeinit_20050610/justiceinit_200506.pdf, accessed on 22.02.2012.
• European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights FRA (2010): Für eine effektivere Polizeiarbeit. Diskriminierendes ‘Ethnic Profiling’ erkennen und vermeiden: ein Handbuch,  http://fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite/attachments/Guide-ethnic-profiling_DE.pdf, accessed on 22.02.2012.
• Hieronymus, Andreas (2011): ENAR Shadow Report 2009/2010 – Supplemental Report : Ethnic profiling in Germany, http://cms.horus.be/files/99935/MediaArchive/ENAR%20Ethnic%20Profiling%20Supplement%20Germany.pdf, accessed on 27.02.2012.
• KOP, Kampagne für Opfer rassistischer Polizeigewalt (2010): “The colour of guilt and innocence” – Racial Profiling im Rahmen polizeilicher Personenkontrollen, http://kop-berlin.de/de/2010/01/the-colour-of-guilt-and-innocence-racial-profiling-im-rahmen-polizeilicher-personenkontrollen/, 22.02.2012.
• Rassistische Diskriminierung in Deutschland unterbinden. Parallelbericht an den UN-Antirassismusausschuss zum 16.–18. Bericht der Bundesrepublik Deutschland nach Artikel 9 des Internationalen Übereinkommens zur Beseitigung jeder Form von rassistischer Diskriminierung (quoted as Parallelbericht). Forum Menschenrechte, http://www.bmj.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/pdfs/Parallelbericht_der_Nichtregierungsorganisation_Forum_Menschenrechte.pdf?__blob=publicationFile, accessed on 15.2.2012.
• UN-Gesandter gegen Rassismus zog Bilanz für Deutschland: Mehr gegen Diskriminierung tun (2009) (qutoted as UN 2009), http://islam.de/13346, accessed on 22.02.2012.