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Video shows alleged police violence in Vienna

A video has emerged which allegedly shows police officers in Vienna physically abusing a man for no apparent reason, after arresting him.

Published: 11 August 2015 17:53 CEST
Video shows alleged police violence in Vienna
A still image from the video. Credit: Falter/Vice

The video appears to show how the young man is brutally thrown face first to the ground and apparently injured.

The incident was filmed by a witness who was passing by Praterstern in Vienna’s second district, and sent the recording to both Falter and Vice magazines.

Police spokesman Johann Golob told the ORF broadcaster that an internal investigation is being carried out within the police force, and confirmed that the two officers shown in the video are members of a riot police team.

He added that the two officers face internal disciplinary measures as well as potential criminal charges if found guilty of assault and mistreating a prisoner.

The video of the incident, which took place on July 28th, shows two policeman violently throwing a man to the ground, who was already in handcuffs. His head hits the concrete, he cries out in pain, and it looks like he has been injured.

Research by Falter and Vice revealed that the 27-year-old man was a suspected pickpocket, who had neither attacked the police, nor resisted arrest. He was later set free from police custody by the state prosecutor.

The Falter article reports that the police officers claimed afterwards that the man had injured himself by “pressing his head against the wall” in order to escape arrest. However, the video appears to show the opposite – a man who is totally passive, being physically abused.

“It clearly looks like the force used by the two officers was completely out of proportion,” Johann Golob told AFP. “The way they grabbed his throat is definitely not part of our way of doing things.”

It is the second time this year that Vienna police officers have been filmed allegedly assaulting someone. On New Year’s Eve a businesswoman said that she was thrown to the ground so viciously that she suffered a fractured coccyx.

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POLICE

Why are Vienna’s police officers trying to get away from the capital?

Austria's Ministry of Interior is grappling with a surge in police transfer requests from Vienna. Police unions have warned the situation is worsening morale and contributing to staffing shortages.

Published: 3 September 2024 16:53 CEST
Why are Vienna's police officers trying to get away from the capital?

A growing number of police officers in Vienna are applying for transfers to other federal states, but lengthy waiting times have frustrated many. 

According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI), 580 civil servants in Vienna have submitted transfer requests, for a total of 799 across Austria. Despite these applications, the waiting list is long, and it can take several years, or even more than a decade, for a transfer to be approved.

Newspaper Kurier reported on one such case. Alex M (the officer asked to remain anonymous, the report said) is a Vienna police officer waiting 13 years to transfer to another state. M. initially applied for a transfer to Lower Austria but also to a second federal state without success. “Every year, you only move up a few places. It’s very gruelling,” he told the newspaper.

READ ALSO: How Austria wants to attract more police officers

Why are officers ‘fleeing’?

Kurier said the primary reason for M.’s desire to transfer is the overwhelming amount of overtime required in Vienna, a complaint voiced by other officers. Police officers in the capital logged over 2.2 million overtime hours last year alone, with some, like M., working up to 140 extra hours per month, Kurier said. 

Most police officers in Vienna come from other federal states, and many wish to return to their home regions after a few years of service. However, the high number of transfer requests and the limited availability of positions in other states mean that only a few requests are approved yearly.

‘It’s important to come clean’

Police unions have expressed concerns about the impact of these long waits on morale and the broader staffing crisis in Vienna.

Walter Strallhofer, a police unionist, criticised the unrealistic expectations set during recruitment. “Police students from the federal states are promised during recruitment that they will soon be able to leave Vienna. But that’s not true. It’s important to come clean with people. When you come to Vienna, you stay here for at least the next ten years.”, he said.

READ ALSO: When are police officers in Austria allowed to use their weapons?

Exceptions to the long wait times are made only in cases of social hardship, such as serious illness of family members. 

The BMI is exploring options to speed up the transfer process, including adjusting admission quotas to accommodate more officers from states with high transfer request numbers.

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