Germany: Bavaria to hire more police officers with immigrant backgrounds

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Hermann announced that Bavaria would look to increase the number of police officers with immigrant backgrounds during a press conference in Nurnberg, Monday.
Speaking alongside a group of police officers from immigrant backgrounds, Hermann said: "Policemen and policewomen with migratory backgrounds belong obviously to our modern and civic police department. This is really a big advantage for the police in Bavaria. The colleagues from the Bavarian police have many direct contacts with citizens and in this case they can play a fundamental role for the de-escalation of conflicts thanks to communication and dialogue."
"The experience has been showing us that our colleagues with foreign roots can be more direct advisors to people with migratory background because firstly they know better the language and mentality," he continued.
Discussing the requirements needed to join the police as an immigrant, Hermann noted that "the placement of colleagues with a foreign nationality is still an exceptional case," before adding: "The rule is that German citizenship is expected. But if there is a special interest, for example if there is the need of someone with a Turkish citizenship so that he can deal in a better way with citizens with this background, we can apply this exception."