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The Zug Post in the news, watch the video here

Police still to withhold information on young offenders' backgrounds

In a recent crime case involving juveniles, the canton of Lucerne disclosed that of 17 offenders, 10 of them had been naturalised, i.e. they were not born Swiss nationals. In Zug, this sort of information is withheld and the cantonal youth solicitor, Alex Briner, has been sharply criticised for not revealing it.
 
However, Marcel Schlatter, the spokesman for the cantonal police, said that the youth solicitor was simply "adhering to the current regulations" in not disclosing such facts and questioned why the Lucerne cantonal police had revealed this information. "It is not up to us to delve into people's ancestry. In our view, the crime is the central issue, not the offender's origins."
 
Indeed, the central police authorities of central Switzerland have agreed that, where the press is concerned, the nationality of offenders as stated on their passport is disclosed but the offender's origins are not. Neither is any information given as to whether the offender has been naturalised or not, except in serious cases where a killing is involved. If the offender is known to be of dual nationality, then this is disclosed.
 
Beat Villiger, head of security in the canton, raised the issue of disclosure with regard to offenders' roots on the occasion of the Conference of Central Swiss Chief Police Constables in view of the new code of criminal procedure and now the matter is to be discussed further. 

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