Police Basel security director finds report "worrying"

Basel's Director of Security Stephanie Eymann describes the external report on the personnel situation at the Basel cantonal police force as "worrying". Personnel consequences are "conceivable, but premature at the present time", she told the Keystone-SDA news agency on Friday.

"I cannot and do not want to answer personnel questions yet," said Eymann. After all, taking a "two-handed approach" just a few hours after the report was published is not serious.

Many of the problems did not come as a complete surprise to her, but the extent did - for example the lack of trust in the police management and the commander. "The breadth and depth of the shortcomings highlighted in the report speak for themselves," said the head of the Department of Justice and Security.

What is needed now is a differentiated examination of the report and the 30 recommendations it contains. As an immediate measure, she had sought talks with the commander Martin Roth and the police management today.

"Don't just go back to business as usual"

"I made it clear that we can't just go back to business as usual with a report like this," Eymann told the Keystone-SDA news agency. At the same time, she found it commendable that Roth had commissioned this survey and that the matter had thus been "put on the table".

Markus Schefer, a constitutional and administrative law expert from the University of Basel, conducted the survey of cantonal police employees on behalf of the commander. In confidential interviews, police officers described a "culture of fear", a lack of trust in leadership and a lack of appreciation and predictability in their free time, among other things. The handling of sexism and racism was also criticized by several of the 372 interviewees. In contrast to the police management, however, head of department Eymann received good marks from the respondents.