Young men with Moroccan roots most often stopped by police

People who were born outside the Netherlands or who have at least one foreign parent say they are more often checked by police than the native Dutch, according to research by national statistics agency CBS.

In particular, one in three young men with parents born in Morocco said they had been stopped by the police on at least one occasion over the past year. The figures were almost as high for men with Turkish and Surinamese roots, but just one in five white Dutch youngsters said they had been questioned by police in the past twelve months. 

The figures come from the agency’s 2024 Public Safety Monitor, a biannual report that looks at crime, safety and police issues. In total, 180,000 people took part in last year’s research and it was the first time questions were asked about police checks. 

Lobby group Control Alt Delete, which monitors police behaviour, pointed out on Monday that the answers to one question – how many times were you stopped by the police – did not feature in the CBS press release about the findings.  

The results that were published show that the measures the police are supposed to take to stop ethnic profiling are still open-ended, the organisation said. “The research confirms what everyone has known for years.”

The police have been struggling to deal with racism in their ranks and in June 2022, acting police chief Liesbeth Huyzer told the NRC that police officers caught making racist remarks will no longer get away with a ‘good chat’

‘The most important message is there will always be some form of sanction, and if necessary, redundancy,’ Huyzer said.

Last month, 11 police officers who exchanged “unacceptable” social media messages were suspended as part of an ongoing disciplinary investigation into racist police WhatsApp groups.