http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/hanover-police-officer-allegedly-tortured-two-refugees-a-1035098.html
In his spare time, Torsten S. engaged in typically rural activities in his village near Hanover: fishing, raising chickens, chopping wood, speeding through the mud in his jeep. But if the accusations against him turn out to be true, the police sergeant had another, uglier side that came out at work.
"I smashed him."
"He squealed like a pig."
"Then the bastard ate the rest of the rotten pork out of the refrigerator. Off of the floor."
In August 2013, Torsten S. supposedly placed his penis on the shoulder of a police colleague and told him to put it in his mouth while holding his service weapon to the colleague's head. The investigating magistrate has described this as a possible attempted rape. Torsten S. told SPIEGEL that the accusations against him have been "exaggerated," but on the advice of his lawyer, he declined to say more. On Tuesday morning, Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, summoned the president of the Federal Police Force, Dieter Romann, to the Interior Ministry. Afterwards, Romann went directly to Hanover, where he visited the police station in which attacks are alleged to have taken place. Romann told officers there that he expects the issue to be completely resolved. He said the investigation would also identify those who had seen something but said nothing. Those who look away, he said, also make themselves culpable.
According to Hamburg criminologist Rafael Behr, who has been delving into the culture of police units for about 20 years, the climate in many police departments favors secrecy. Units have created the sense that their fates are tied together, that they are constantly under threat from criminals, drunks and a hostile outside world. He claims that the rule, even if one officer crosses the line, is for officers to stick together. This, he says, is also one of the reasons why only a fraction of the about 2,000 investigative procedures against police for violence every year end up in court. "You don't tattle on a colleague, that is the iron rule," Behr says.