From the introduction:

Group-based misanthropy within the police has long been a recurring topic in Germany and Austria. Over the past twenty years, politically motivated acts of violence committed by German police officers, in which migrants and people of colour died in custody or during police action, caused headlines nationally. (…)

The killing of George Floyd by a police officer in May 2020 in the USA triggered a wave of mass protests around the world against police violence. The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement not only stood in solidarity with George Floyd but raised awareness for the fact that institutionalized discrimination by the police against minorities constitutes a fundamental problem in many countries. Also in Germany and Austria, large-scale protests erupted and reinforced the public debate on structural problems with police violence. Social movements such as the BLM movement are crucial players in the political agenda-setting process, articulating aspects of public opinion and putting pressure on governments. Apart from occasional waves and outbursts of protest, civil society, to which social movements are to be counted, and its organizations continue to raise attention on critical topics.

Looking at Germany’s and Austria’s past of incidents of police violence and re-considering the basic principles upon which democratic states are built, it is worth questioning in which way civil society players can use their voices to call attention to the human rights violations caused by state officials. Against this background, this study aims to provide an overview of the role covered by civil society in the political and social reappraisal of police violence. As this specific topic has not been covered by existing research, the focus is to rather broadly depict perspectives, inherent potentials, impediments to improvement as well as success factors of civil society engagement, provided by relevant stakeholders from Germany and Austria. Accordingly, this paper is intended as a “conceptual paper” with the aim of giving an introduction to the topic and laying the foundations for further research.