Obligated by law When do the Zurich police disclose the nationality of a perpetrator - and when not?
Sometimes the nationality of a speeding driver is mentioned prominently, sometimes it is completely missing despite the alleged offense: Zurich's police forces do not consistently communicate details of origin.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- In the canton of Zurich, police forces have had to state the nationality of suspects under certain conditions since 2021.
- According to the police, nationalities are published in the case of serious crimes or speeding offenses.
- However, several examples show that the rules are applied differently or information is sometimes forgotten.
- The case of two head-on collisions in Birmensdorf illustrates this: The British Ferrari driver with a speeding offense had his origin named, while the other person responsible for the accident did not.
On the same day, two serious traffic accidents occurred in Birmensdorf ZH - in both cases head-on collisions between two cars.
The collisions occurred at different times and in different places and have nothing to do with each other. It is striking that the nationality of the person suspected of causing the accident is stated in one police report - he is British - but not in the other.
The nationality of criminals and traffic offenders moves people - especially those who are critical of immigration to Switzerland. Since 2021, police forces in the canton of Zurich have been legally obliged to state the nationality of individuals in their media releases under certain conditions.
The Police Act states: "If it informs the public, it shall disclose the age, gender and nationality of the perpetrators, suspects and victims, unless there are reasons for not doing so in order to protect their privacy or there is a risk that the persons could be identified."
This is why the Zurich police do not always state nationality
Kenneth Jones explains to blue News how those responsible handle this in practice: "In the case of criminal offenses, the nationalities of those involved are usually named, but in the case of traffic offenses, only in the case of gross violations or in the case of great public interest - such as speeding."
The city police have made a similar statement to blue News. "In the case of criminal offenses, we state the nationality unless the protection of privacy is more important. Under certain circumstances, however, we do disclose the nationality at the request of the media," explains spokesman Marc Surber.
In the city of Zurich, the rule is applied fairly consistently, as a review of media reports since the beginning of the year shows. Only after riots, once at the unauthorized demonstration on 1 May and once after an illegal party, has the Stapo kept the nationalities of the suspects to itself. The same applies after the fire in a daycare center in Altstetten - here to protect the personality of the employee arrested under suspicion, as Surber confirms.
In the two other incidents, the police spokesman admits that the countries of origin of those arrested had to be stated. At the time of the announcement on May 1, the suspects had not yet been identified and the officers were still busy identifying them. In the case of the bottle thrower after the illegal party, the nationality had been forgotten when the communiqué was written.
Kapo Zurich provides inconsistent information
The cantonal police often disregard their own rules. For example, a boss who allowed 25 people to work on May 1st without a permit was reported, but his nationality was not mentioned.
It seems unlikely that the person can be identified on the basis of their nationality, as neither the name of the company nor the trade are mentioned and only the district of Bülach appears as the location in the notification.
The threshold for naming the nationality can be seen from a report on a mobile speed check with several convicted persons: Only the speeding driver, who was traveling at 145 km/h instead of the permitted 80 km/h, is described as Swiss.
The woman and the man, who also had to surrender their driving licenses immediately, remained below the speed limit with speeds between 108 km/h and 125 km/h. The speed limit on roads with a speed limit of 80 km/h is 140 km/h.
Apparently not bad enough to indicate nationality was the repeated engine revving of a car poser in Winterthur. The city police have reported him for causing unnecessary noise.
Their announcement that they had detected and reported violations in several "special trades" also does not mention nationality. This refers to "clubs, barbershops and retail outlets". One business operated as a restaurant without the necessary permit, another employed people without a work permit and another did not charge VAT.
And even the raid on an illegal poker room in Glattbrugg ZH, where police officers confiscated cash worth over 60,000 francs, among other things, did not result in any nationalities being named. The Federal Gaming Board opened criminal proceedings against the person identified as responsible. It published the press release together with the Zurich police.
It was a different story for the seven Serbian nationals who were caught in March 2026 in a restaurant in Dübendorf conducting real estate transactions on their laptops without a work permit in Switzerland. The two men who were caught illegally trading gold on the same day also appear in the police report with their country of origin as Germany.
When asked about all these reports, the cantonal police state that they do not comment on individual cases.
Origin mainly for violence and speeding
In summary, it can be said that the Zurich cantonal police and the Zurich and Winterthur municipal police report nationalities particularly in cases of crimes such as assault, robbery and theft. In road traffic cases, the nationality of the suspect must be included in the report if a speeding offense is suspected.
It can also happen that the police do not state the nationalities because these have not yet been established at the time of public communication.
In the case of the British driver who caused a head-on collision with his 830 hp Ferrari in Birmensdorf ZH and is suspected of a speeding offense, his nationality was included in the supplementary police report on the following day.
The other driver, who hit a car driving correctly on the opposite lane in the same municipality on the same day, was obviously not traveling fast enough for his nationality to be mentioned.
His age of 69 is more of an issue. This can be found without exception in the police accident reports from the canton of Zurich.