Top Dutch police officials are dissatisfied with the force’s current positive discrimination policy, Dutch newspaper AD reported on Thursday. The paper estimates that at least ten white male police administrators left the force because they were not hired for a senior position.

AD interviewed former police commissioner Marc Jacobs. Mr Jacobs left the police last year after it became apparent to him that the job he aspired to wasn’t open to him. “I didn’t stand a chance,” he told the paper. He was told that he could apply “till I was blue in the face” but that they would hire a woman or a member of a minority anyway. “There was no way that that I was going to get what I wanted.”

In 2005, the Dutch police adopted a new policy to increase gender and ethnic diversity in the top ranks of the force. According to the new rules women and minorities have to be hired in 50% of executive positions.

Last year, the policy made headlines when the police in the Dutch province of Zeeland clashed with Interior Minister Guusje ter Horst over their new Chief of Police. The Zeeland police nominated a male candidate for the position, dismissing a female candidate as ‘unsuitable’. Minister ter Horst insisted that the police stuck to the policy and hire a woman for the job.

Conservative opposition member Fred Teeven is unhappy with the state of affairs. “I have no problems with women or minorities in executive functions, but the way everything happens now is too forced,” he explained to AD, “The policy is unwarranted. You should pick the best person for the job, you should not shove diversity down people’s throats. There are more men in executive functions because there are more men in the police.” Mr Jacobs agrees. “It’s too rigid,” he says.

The police commissioners confirm that the policy has led to people leaving the service, but they are unwilling to give exact numbers. A spokesman for the police says that, although he does not see any reason to change it, they are currently evaluating the policy. He emphasises that half of the executive positions are still open to white men.

The Dutch police force has been accused of discrimination on the work floor in the past.
 

© Radio Netherlands Worldwide