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Berlin (dpa / bb) - At the Berlin police force, a new internal investigation team is to investigate connections between police officers and right-wing extremist circles and criminal offenses.

The police chief Barbara Slowik announced on Monday in the interior committee.

This investigation group is to be located at the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) and begin its work on April 1st.

Slowik said the investigation team was looking after "characteristics, possible connections between various right-wing extremist crimes that were committed by police officers".

The police also hope that the lack of a corresponding network within the authority will be able to “prove more clearly and more validly”.

Last year, the Berlin police initiated 24 criminal proceedings against colleagues from within their own ranks for right-wing extremist incidents.

At the same time, 47 disciplinary proceedings are ongoing on suspicion of right-wing extremist or racist statements.

According to the authorities, the severity of the violations varies.

There are statements that can be racist but are not punishable by law.

In civil service law, however, they can trigger disciplinary proceedings.

More serious violations such as clearly right-wing extremist statements, chat history or posted pictures are often an additional criminal offense.

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A number of problematic incidents had become known in recent years - most recently in October a police chat group with 26 members, several of whom, according to the prosecutor, exchanged messages with racist content or swastikas.

A total of 26,000 police officers and employees work for the Berlin police.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210222-99-542592 / 2