The police do not mention the nationality of perpetrators on Twitter & Co.

The Zug police mention the nationalities of criminals in their media releases, but not on social media. There’s a good reason for this.

The Zug police should not mention the nationality of criminals on social media such as Facebook, Twitter and others in the future. This is clear from the government's response to a motion by the cantonal SVP councillors  (SVP-Kantonsratsfraktion). They had requested that the law enforcement agencies should state the nationality, age and gender of perpetrators, suspects and victims on their social media.

The Governing Council (Regierungsrat) asked the cantonal council (Kantonsrat) to declare the request as non-significant. The reason for this is that the media releases sent by law enforcement authorities to accredited media and posted on the Internet do mention the nationalities. The only reason for not stating such facts would be for reasons of personal privacy protection.

Social media listing more problematic
The Zug Police has been active on social media since February 1, 2019, via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. These channels serve as a direct contact with the population, in contrast to the information sent to the editorial media. The law enforcement agencies initially also mentioned the nationalities on social media, "which sometimes led to offensive, discriminatory and insulting comments being posted," according to the government's response. "Users started political discussions on the channels of the Zug Police." The police are obliged to remain neutral, however, and must therefore not make any space available for such discussions. Such discussions also usually distract from the actual content – which, in turn, is not desired. For this reason, "the Zug police have decided to refrain from mentioning nationality on social media – and only there."

The Governing Council is of the opinion that the existing guidelines and foundations are fully sufficient. The police should use direct communication with the population for police purposes, but these should not then be misused as a political forum.