Some measures are illegal
Police must admit mistakes in dealing with football fans
During a Bundesliga soccer game in August 2022, police measures were taken against which a supporter took legal action. During the proceedings, the police admitted that parts of the operation were illegal.
The Lower Saxony police have admitted some illegal actions in a court case regarding police measures against Werder Bremen fans. This was announced by the Braunschweig Administrative Court. The court had already made the judgment on the events before Bremen's away game at VfL Wolfsburg on August 6, 2022 on January 31 and then served it on the parties involved.
The complaint was filed by a Werder supporter who, along with other Bremen fans, was checked by the police after arriving at Wolfsburg main station. In a partial recognition judgment, the administrative court found that the determination of the plaintiff's identity, the search, the ban on staying in the Wolfsburg city area and the collection of personal data by the police were unlawful. According to the court, the police themselves had already given such a partial acknowledgment in August 2023 at a non-public hearing.
Pistorius invokes “culture of errors”
The then Lower Saxony Interior Minister and current Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius had admitted the police's failures immediately after the incidents: “The error culture in a modern police force also includes the fact that corresponding errors are recognized and named,” said the SPD politician at the time.
The Werder supporter's lawsuit was originally directed against the use of a police drone. However, after the commander explained that the plaintiff could not be observed with the drone on the station forecourt, the court stopped the proceedings on this point.
The complaint that the checkpoint set up at the Wolfsburg train station was illegal was also rejected because the police had already recognized the illegality of the measures taken at the checkpoint. At that time, numerous Werder fans did not move on to the stadium in protest against the police operation and instead returned home.
