Until now, only Swiss citizens could become police officers in Lausanne – as in most other cities and cantons.
But this could soon change.
The municipality is now looking into recruiting some foreign residents to boost the ranks of its police because, according to the local newspaper, 24 Heures, “the proportion of foreigners in the Lausanne population reaches 42 percent, but the police force in this region remains relatively non-diversified.”
This move comes shortly after some of the Lausanne police officers had been accused of racism in the aftermath of the violent unrest that broke out in the Vaud capital in August.
Does this mean that any foreign resident of Lausanne could apply and be accepted?
Recruitment would only be open to C-permit holders – in other words, to foreign nationals who have been living in the country between five and 10 years, know the language, and are fully integrated.
What about elsewhere in Switzerland?
Like many other sectors of the economy, law enforcement also suffers from the shortage of qualified personnel.
However, most cantons and municipalities only accept Swiss nationals into the ranks of their police forces.
In fact, only a handful of cantons - Graubünden, Jura, Neuchâtel, Schwyz, and Basel-City – have, to date, opened their police forces to foreigners with C-permits.
But is keeping foreigners from joining law enforcement legal?
The Free Movement of People (AFMP) agreement between Bern and Brussels stipulates that EU workers must have “the right to equal treatment with [Swiss] nationals with regard to access to economic activity, as well as living, employment and working conditions.”
Further, a Swiss law, the Foreign Nationals and Integration Act (FNIA). also establishes this precedence.
In effect, this means that EU citizens (along with those from EFTA states – Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein), have the same access to jobs as Swiss nationals.
So why don’t more EU/EFTA nationals get hired for police jobs?
That’s because the Federal Council decided that Swiss citizens could be favoured for jobs related to security, justice, defence, intelligence, border controls, or representing Switzerland abroad.
It also added that currently 95 percent of positions in federal administration are occupied by the Swiss, and in the other 5 percent, 80 percent are nationals of the EU or EFTA.
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