EU study finds widespread racist policing practices

The European Union rights agency has called for reforms "to stamp out racism in policing" across the bloc, including collecting data better to assess the problem.

People of different ethnic backgrounds experience racist comments, more frequent stops and even violence, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) found in its first comprehensive EU-wide study on racism in policing published on Wednesday.

Among its recommendations was the better collection of data. It found "most EU countries do not collect official data on racist incidents involving the police or they do not record them properly".

"The lack of national data makes it difficult to fully assess the magnitude of the problem and design effective responses," it said.

Only the Czech Republic, Germany and the Netherlands publish data regularly or upon request.

Ethnic profiling

The report also found a lack of recruitment policies to improve ethnic diversity.

"Incidents of ethnic profiling and excessive use of force are expressions of racism in policing that EU countries need to address," FRA director Sirpa Rautio said.

"We call on EU countries and police authorities to take urgent action to stamp out racism in policing."

FRA also noted that racism in policing has "far-reaching effects, fuelling social exclusion and harming trust in police forces".

In a report last year, FRA found black people in the 27 EU countries face increasing levels of discrimination, with nearly half, or 45 percent, of respondents in an EU survey saying they have been affected by racism, up from 39 percent in 2016.

The highest levels of discrimination were found in Germany and Austria, where over 70 percent of those surveyed said they are exposed to racism.