Police officers do not have to have a thicker skin than ordinary citizens when it comes to being sworn at or insulted, the high court ruled on Tuesday.
The court was looking at the case of a woman found not guilty of insulting four police officers in 2006 by calling them losers, suckers, and other swear words which loosely translate as bastard.
She was freed after a lower court said police are expected to have thick skins and to be able take some abuse.
The case is to be referred back to the appeal court for reconsideration, the Volkskrant reported on Tuesday.
‘You often hear that the police should have a thick skin but that is not what the law says,’ said a court spokesman. ‘In fact, the opposite is the case. People who insult civil servants doing their jobs run the risk of being punished more severely.’
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