The complaints office at the Hamburg police was used almost 1,300 times in its first year. From the beginning of March 2021 to the end of February 2022, a total of 1,249 external complaints were received by the new Complaints Management and Disciplinary Office (BMDA). A further 14 tips were given internally by police employees, the interior authority announced on Monday.
According to the information, most of the complaints about police action – exactly 805 – were received by e-mail. Another 95 were sent via the anonymous digital whistleblower system and 16 were reported personally to the specially set up complaints office in the city center.
So far, the 20 employees have completed 1,082 procedures. 84 complaints were classified as justified and 116 as partially justified. 673 complaints were assessed as unjustified. Since the police completed more than half a million operations during the assessment period, this resulted in a complaint rate of 0.2 percent. 0.04 percent were entitled or partially entitled.
Almost half of all complaints related to the category "perception of use". 172 complaints about police actions were directly related to the corona pandemic. In addition to the tone of voice of the police officers at the scene, those affected often complained about waiting times that were too long or a lack of objectivity. There was also always trouble in the traffic area - and there in particular with parking and speed violations.
As a consequence, further investigations were initiated in ten cases, and in one case an implementation took place. Five police officers had been obliged to undergo further training or to attend service classes. In addition, 151 awareness-raising or criticism talks were held.
