It is therefore not about ‘service acts’, according to the police. “But also in private time, police officers are expected to behave in a socially responsible and morally impeccable manner.” The two worked in the Drenthe district.
In the ‘relational sphere’
One employee was investigated in June 2022 because of a suspicion of serious dereliction of duty ‘in the relational sphere’. The investigation into the other employee was initiated in November 2022 due to the suspicion of serious dereliction of duty in the ‘private sphere’. The two cases are unrelated, according to police.
In 2020 and 2021, 47 police officers were fired for inappropriate behavior in the private sphere, 37 employees received a conditional discharge, according to research by RTL News:
In Drenthe, according to the police, both disciplinary investigations showed that the employees were guilty of behavior that was so bad that only unconditional punishment was justified. The employees were no longer working during the investigation.
“If you work for the police, you have an exemplary function. Police work is people’s work and people can make mistakes. We have to learn from that, but dereliction of duty has consequences,” said the police.
