Overview
- The city tasked its internal audit office with a special review of the public-order department after a multi-part WAZ investigation detailed serious staff misconduct.
- The WAZ series reported sexual harassment, racist group chats with Hitler images, threats against a colleague, and staff watching a football match while on duty, based on chats, internal files, photos, and interviews.
- Prosecutors confirmed a sexual harassment verdict linked to the department, and a separate case over an alleged knife threat surfaced in labor court proceedings observed by reporters.
- City officials said they see no proof of systemic problems so far, cited past disciplinary steps such as warnings and dismissals, and said the chats occurred outside city systems.
- Leaders plan talks with frontline staff and said criminal complaints will follow where laws were broken, a step that could shape trust in an office that enforces local rules face to face in Bochum.