‘Whistleblower at Rotterdam police station bullied out by colleagues’

An officer who informed the leadership of the Rotterdam police about racist statements made by colleagues in Whatsapp groups has been bullied by his colleagues. That writes NRC, who was also the first to write about the racist chat messages.

The officers were together with the whistleblower in an app group in which highly discriminatory statements were made. When it turned out that the policeman in question, who has a Moroccan background, had reported these messages, he faced aggression from colleagues. They saw him as a traitor, the newspaper writes.

The Rotterdam police boss Fred Westerbeke is said to have been informed of the aggression against the whistleblower in December last year. A local police officer who had long been associated with the same police station as the people in the app group informed Westerbeke with the words: “We are ruled by extremist minorities”.

App group canceled by team leader

The whistleblower was a local police officer at the Marconiplein police station, but has now transferred to the Central Netherlands police. The app group was discontinued by the team leader at the end of 2019.

Last month, Westerbeke told NRC that the agents who held racist, discriminatory and sexist app conversations had received a written reprimand from him. That is the lightest disciplinary sanction the police can impose. The OM launched an investigation in the summer of last year.

–