The Dutch Response to Concerns About Racial Profiling: An Adequate Legal and Administrative Framework?

Abstract

This study provides a comprehensive analysis of how lawmakers, policymakers, and courts responded to concerns raised about racial profiling in the Netherlands between 2012 and 2024. A qualitative analysis of Freedom of Information requests, public policy documents, and relevant court rulings shows that the police and the Ministry of Justice, urged by claimsmakers, acknowledged that racial profiling occurs, allocated funds for scientific research, developed policies, embarked on renewed efforts to diversify the police workforce and instructed police officers that race should not play a role in investigatory stops. However, supervisors have no insight into whether police officers are complying with the rules against racial profiling. The Supreme Court of the Netherlands ruled that officers do not need reasonable suspicion to conduct investigatory traffic stops, granting Dutch police officers broader discretionary powers than their counterparts in the UK and the US. Moreover, there is no demonstrable evidence that racial profiling has decreased during the research period. The findings lead to the conclusion that the Netherlands does not meet the legal benchmark of an “adequate legal and administrative framework” to counter racial profiling, as mandated by the European Court of Human Rights.