Düsseldorf/Bielefeld (dpa/lnw) – After the controversial police operation in Bielefeld, disciplinary proceedings were initiated against the driver of the patrol car involved. This emerges from a report published on Tuesday to the interior committee of the state parliament. An Internet video showed a patrol car braking a scooter – which then crashed into the rear of the car.
The police officers involved had put the incident on record differently. They would have chased a souped-up scooter. Shortly after the police officers parked their car on the side, the scooter crashed into it. The video of a local resident, which had spread rapidly on the Internet, shows what happened in a completely different way. The police officers involved, with the exception of one commissioner candidate, have meanwhile been transferred to office work.
A video recording from the patrol car is not available, the report goes on to say. Since the police officers who recorded the traffic accident assumed it was a rear-end collision without injuries, they did not secure the memory card.
When the witness video cast doubt on the officials’ version, the memory card had already been overwritten or deleted. The recordings would only be stored for 24 hours due to the system.
The public prosecutor’s office in Bielefeld had initiated preliminary proceedings against the driver of the patrol car to examine an initial suspicion. The case should be a topic in the interior committee of the state parliament next Thursday. NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) had already admitted that the video would raise clear doubts about police action.
On August 13, the police officers wanted to check a scooter driver with a conspicuous driving style, who reportedly tried to drive away.
The officials’ original description: They overtook him, losing sight of the scooter for a short time. “When they slowly parked the vehicle sideways, they heard an impact after a short time,” says the first message from mid-August. The video, published by the “Neue Westfälische”, clearly shows how the police car overtakes the scooter, cuts in just in front of it and slams on the brakes, whereupon the two-wheeler crashes into the minibus.
