The grandchildren's trick is a form of fraud in which perpetrators pretend to be relatives, sometimes as craftsmen, in order to get into apartments or to sneak money. Older people in particular are victims of such trick theft. The police have done a lot in recent years to clear up this type of crime and to catch the masterminds. However, the Berlin police overshot the target. She not only pursued the thefts, but also repeatedly linked the deeds in internal processes with an ethnic minority: the Sinti and Roma.
According to SZ information, the Berlin police noted terms such as "Roma", "Sinti" or "Gypsy" in 31 cases in 2017 alone. The information was found in criminal charges, search reports, interim reports or final reports to the public prosecutor's office; it was often just quotations from the interrogation of witnesses. Again and again, however, such terms were used without cause in connection with trick theft. And the latter is illegal according to the Berlin state data protection officer Maja Smoltczyk.
Because the police may only exploit a person's ethnicity under very specific conditions. For example if it is necessary for the manhunt or if a xenophobic or racist motive comes into question. Otherwise belonging to an ethnic group or a "nationality" has lost nothing in the files, according to the office of the Berlin state data protection officer. She has now formally objected to it - this is the toughest measure she has available.
